


wake up in your crystal sky, we're floating just to feel alive

by endofdaysforme



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, am I capable of writing anything else? I feel like im not lmao, me strumming a guitar: anyway here's another au fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-01-22 15:35:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 49,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21304421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endofdaysforme/pseuds/endofdaysforme
Summary: the fourth of july was usually an occassion where the entire town of riverdale, the north and southside alike, came together to celebrate…this year was different.this year, clifford blossom had personally decided to ban those from the southside from attending, and in particular, those who bore the leather jackets with a green serpent on the back.--aka, the northside and the southside of riverdale are at war after an incident on the fourth of july leaves people dead and others grieving. cheryl blossom and toni topaz's lives change forever that day, and after being reunited after almost a decade apart, they begin to notice something's different, and that the events that transpired that day may not be what they seem.obstacles remain in their path, but soulmates always find their way back home to each other.--aka, a cloak and dagger au.
Relationships: Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz
Comments: 112
Kudos: 345





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> hiiiiiiii, so I've never actually watched 'cloak & dagger' but oomf's on twitter told me all about it and HOLY SHIT. my mind basically went "I not only need to watch this show, I need to write a choni au for it", and then the show got cancelled and I got sad and wanted justice so HERE IS A CLOAK AND DAGGER AU FOR CHONI.
> 
> I wanna give a big thanks to three people: Syd (@choniblopaz1 on twitter, cheryltonis on here), Britney (@mylittlefaith on twitter, cherylbombshells on here) and Bree (@topazgotjuice on twitter, topazgotthejuice on here). they've helped me out so much with this fic and I honestly cannot thank them enough, particularly Britney, who is a massive fan of C&D and basically gave me everything I needed to get this fic going. THIS ONE'S FOR YOU!!
> 
> anyway, I hope you guys like it, it is gonna be a multi chapter fic but it won't be like therapist fic levels haha, I'm talking maybe only 5-6 chapters or so, and I'm gonna aim for updating at least once a week but don't hold me to it, I'll do my best I promise
> 
> but regardless, lemme know what you think! love you guys and yay I'm back! SKSKS

the fourth of july.

a time of celebration. a time of hope. of happiness and wonder. 

a day that would forever be altered in the small town of riverdale. 

it was a day like any other year where they celebrated the day of independence for the united states of america. a day where the entire town gathered on the banks of sweet water river for a day of fun, of activities, of rides. of food and laughter and fun. a day where the town came together, in unity and strength, where neighbors with issues would put them aside and kids of all ages would play together. a day to celebrate.

it was an event consistently run every year by one clifford blossom and his wife, penelope. the blossoms were the wealthiest family in the small town of riverdale, the owners of the infamous blossom maple syrup company that provided bottles of the sticky sweet substance to towns across america. along with their two children, twins cheryl and jason blossom, everyone had them to thank for the day being nothing more and nothing less than spectacular, always ending with a showcase of fireworks on the riverbanks of sweet water river. 

this year, a ferris wheel had made an appearance, and it’s where cheryl and jason blossom stand now, waiting in line to have their joyous turn on the gigantic attraction, unbeknownst of the drama occurring just a few feet away from them as a crowd of people with leather jackets watch the event with almost angered and loathing expressions on their faces.

for you see, the fourth of july was _usually_ an occassion where the entire town of riverdale, the north and southside alike, came together to celebrate…

this year was different. 

this year, clifford blossom had personally decided to ban those from the southside from attending, and in particular, those who bore the leather jackets with a green serpent on the back.

the southside serpents were a motorcycle gang of criminals…drug dealers and thieves who were a consistent stain on the town’s reputation, and clifford blossom refused to extend an invite to them this year, a decision that was agreed upon by the rest of the town. particularly with how their drug dealing had begun to bleed into the northside, corrupting those that were supposed to be clean, the side of town with white picket fences and happy people…the side of town that was wealthy, and straight laced.

so yes, they had agreed that the southside serpents were not allowed to attend this joyous event. something that clearly hasn’t sat well with any of them, considering the fact that they’re making their way towards the river, a small group of them strutting towards it as the northsiders slowly begin to realize who’s making an entrance.

the criminals. the drug dealers and thieves of the southside.

and it isn’t long until one of those northsiders is clifford blossom himself, the man almost turning as red as the infamous hair on his head as he marches towards the man front and center of the pack walking through the crowd with smirks on their faces, not afraid of anyone or anything.

the man in front raises a hand to stop the serpents in their tracks as clifford blossom comes face to face with none other than tobias topaz, the leader of the southside serpents. 

“i don’t remember inviting anyone from the southside to this occasion, particularly not any _serpents_, tobias.” clifford hisses through bared teeth exposing a fake smile for all to see and not raise alarm, prepared to take whatever measures necessary to ensure this day remains untainted as tobias looks behind him to his serpents with a chuckle, a hand falling upon the head of brown hair of the small figure that clutches his leg tightly and looks up at clifford with wide doe eyes filled with fear, not that clifford pays any attention to _it._

“well, clifford…i figured i’d bring my little girl here to enjoy the celebrations! it’s her favorite time of year, and we are part of the town of riverdale, aren’t we? why shouldn’t we be here?” tobias says firmly, winking once at the members behind him who slowly begin to make their way around the festivities, stopping at kiosks for food and ball games for fun with only a few loyal serpents remaining by his side as tobias makes a move forward with his daughter still clutching his leg. but clifford suddenly clutches his arm with a grunt and bared teeth, the anger in his eyes almost biblical in passion as his grip tightens on tobias topaz’s bicep.

“you’re not welcome here.” he growls, nails almost digging into his skin as two serpents behind their fearless leader rush forward to tobias’s defense. 

tobias tenses up, holds up the arm not currently clutched in clifford’s grip to stop his serpents once again before he yanks his arm out of clifford’s grip forcefully with a look of pure murder in his eyes. he says nothing, however, and instead reaches down and ruffles his daughter’s hair. she clutches his leg tighter with a whimper, looking up at clifford with fear once more before tobias is bending down to press a kiss to her brow tenderly, bent down on his haunches to look into her wide eyes.

“go on, antoinette. go wait in line at the ferris wheel, daddy’s gonna be right there to go on it with you, okay?” he murmurs, giving her a small smile despite the tension thick in the air as antoinette looks up at clifford once more-

“eyes on me, baby. go to the line for the ferris wheel, now.” tobias says, a little more firmly this time with a grip on her shoulder that indicates he’s not playing around with this order.

and little antoinette topaz, as obedient as ever of the man she adores and worships, looks to her father before she nods soundlessly and runs towards the line of the ferris wheel, only glancing back once to see clifford and tobias still staring at each other angrily as she comes to a stop at the back of the line with an anxiousness she can’t explain taking her over.

she’s too young to know what’s going on, only focusing on the excitement flooding her body as her eyes move up to observe the ferris wheel as it goes around before her eyes land on the two kids in front of her with hair as bright red as the hair on top of the man she just saw talking with her father. the boy almost looks older than the girl, is taller and slightly larger than his sister beside him, and he’s wearing simple denim shorts and a shirt that look like they cost about a fortune while his sister beside him is wearing a long sleeved hoodie that would be much too warm for summer time and that’s way too big on her, the sleeves only slightly rolled up to her forearms. she’s wearing leggings as well, her hair in a loose ponytail as she shakes her head at her brother with a scoff.

“come on, jay jay, it’s not that scary!” the girl says loudly, rolling her brown eyes as her brother looks up at the ferris wheel with nothing but fear shining in his own blue ones, bottom lip clutched between his teeth anxiously.

“I don't know, cheryl, i don’t trust it…it’s big and scary.” he says in a voice too high pitched for a boy that has antoinette stifling a giggle behind her hand.

she’s used to the big, tough boys her age from the southside. jughead and sweet pea and fangs, all broad shouldered and tough with deep voices despite their age, ready to pound down anyone who so much as _looks_ at them strangely…

“jason, daddy’s men put it up there which means it’s as stable as can be! do you not trust daddy?” the girl with red hair the boy called ‘cheryl’ exclaims, resting her hands on her hips sassily while antoinette watches as jason doesn’t answer, but cheryl doesn’t seem to notice as she tosses her hair with a shrug and not a care in the world for her brother’s trembling frame.

“then we’re gonna be just fine, now come on, we’re up next!” cheryl takes her brother’s hand and drags him forward while antoinette shuffles awkwardly behind them, her tongue poking out between her two missing from teeth as she looks up at the ferris wheel with her own excitement pounding through her.

she wants to go on this with her father, but when she looks back, she can see him still arguing loudly with the man with red hair, gesturing wildly and looking as mad as the day her mother left three years ago…antoinette still can't wait for the day she comes back, she has so many drawings and pictures to show her...

“cher, i really don’t wanna go on it!” jason cries suddenly, pulling antoinette’s attention back to them as he rips his hand out of cheryl’s grip with a shake of his head that has cheryl sighing in frustration as she runs her fingers through her hair and looks around at the crowd around them before-

“hey! how old are you?” she demands, looking to antoinette, who jumps at the sudden sound of being addressed and purses her lips before she shrugs.

“seven and a half!” she exclaims with a grin and a slight lisp from her two missing teeth, and cheryl’s responding smile is almost world stopping, but also filled with determination as she looks at jason with a triumphant shout.

“ha! see, she’s the same age as us and she’s not being a wimp! she’s even going on it all by herself! come on, let’s go on this ferris wheel and prove to jay jay that it’s not that scary!” cheryl cries, reaching out and taking antoinette’s hand into her own, the small girl just barely acknowledging how cold cheryl’s hand feels against her own before the red haired girl is dragging her towards the carriage that comes to a stop in front of them. two people exit as the ride attendant opens it, and antoinette shrugs, glances back for her father once more with a sigh-

“wait! cheryl, don’t leave me here alone, please!” jason cries, rushing forward with tears in his eyes that cheryl quickly waves away nonchalantly while antoinette again stifles a giggle at just how _pathetic_ this boy is.

the rich truly are just snobby idiots with no spines like her father has always said…

“nope! you missed your chance, jay jay! you were a scaredy cat and now you get to watch us go on it instead!” cheryl says with a grin that has antoinette noticing the silver braces on her teeth. 

“step back, kid.” the ride attendant grunts out to jason, who steps back with a sniffle as they quickly walk into the carriage with giggles and faces red with excitement.

before antoinette can even respond and suggest that jason just come with them, because no boy can be this truly afraid as she looks back at him to see him watching them with fear, cheryl is dropping them down in the seat in the carriage with their hands still intertwined as the ride attendant shuts the gate closed of their carriage, locking them in. jason watches them with big blue eyes shining with unshed tears, sniffling in sadness and fear as the ride jolts, causing antoinette to jump in fear and clutch cheryl’s hand tighter with a racing heart.

“hey, it’s okay. i’ll keep you safe.” cheryl promises softly, not a drop of insincerity in her voice as antoinette chuckles and looks at Jason guiltily while he watches them go up with sadness in his eyes. 

she wishes the other boys from the southside were here, maybe they’d make jason feel braver if he saw them going on it too…but her father had insisted all the children stay behind except for her ‘just in case’.

just in case of what, antoinette has no idea. 

“is that your brother?” antoinette asks, looking to cheryl as the girl sighs and sinks back into the seat with a nod, her shoulders relaxing almost instantly as she does.

“yeah, my twin brother, jason. he’s bigger than me though, and stronger…we don’t even look like twins.” cheryl murmurs, suddenly looking down at her fingers nervously, and antoinette frowns and is about to ask why it sounds like that isn’t a good thing when cheryl’s head snaps up and her eyes widen.

“wow…what a view…” cheryl says suddenly, and antoinette’s attention is pulled to the view outside the carriage the higher up they get, the way the entire town of riverdale slowly appears over the forest of trees that hide sweet water river from view.

she can see the whole northside from here…she’s never been to the northside…there’s neon lights from some diner and she can see the high school too…it looks so much prettier than the southside…and cleaner…

they’re about a quarter of the way up, dangling over the depths of sweet water river when cheryl's voice echoes out.

“i haven’t seen you around, what’s your name?” cheryl asks suddenly. antoinette turns to look at her, opens her mouth to reply-

it all happens very quickly.

there’s the sound of a loud bang, a loud bang so vicious and so startling that cheryl and toni both scream and cover their ears before they’re gripping each other’s hands tightly once more out of fear as everything begins to shake and rock around them violently.

it doesn’t occur to antoinette that the ferris wheel is swaying when it definitely should not be until cheryl’s suddenly looking at her with wide eyes as she grabs the gated door like she’s about to jump out, but antoinette grabs her hand and pulls her back down with a yell as they swing to the side. antoinette screams, arms flailing until cheryl suddenly grabs both her hands tightly with a panicked scream of her own.

“get down!” antoinette yells, and with their hands still clasped tightly, cheryl ducks down as antoinette jumps on top of her to protect her before her entire body feels like it’s floating, her heart sinking weightlessly with each foot she falls as the carriage detaches from the ferris wheel and her body is pulled upwards weightlessly, the back of her head smacking against the top of the carriage-

and everything goes dark.

—

cheryl feels her entire body crash into the water beneath them painfully before it hits her that she can’t breathe.

it takes her a moment to process everything before the water is clogging her lungs, her nose, her mouth, and cheryl’s still gripping the hand of the small body curled up on top of her as she inhales water roughly and swallows it down.

this isn’t good. this isn’t good at all.

but cheryl blossom is quick on her feet, and she’s been taking swimming lessons since she was a toddler. 

she looks around the small carriage as the weight on top of her disappears, trying to find some kind of way out when she notices the large slits acting as windows for the view to be seen from up high, and even though she’s not sure she and the little girl can fit through it, she pushes herself up off the ground anyway, digging her heels into the steel floor of the carriage. the little girl is floating beside her, eyes closed, unconscious, and cheryl reaches out to grab her, the taste of sweet water river coating her tongue and making her stomach turn as she hooks her hands underneath her armpits and drags her to the window. cheryl lets her go, but keeps one hand curled into the back of the girl’s shirt and pulls herself through feet first, thanks every god she knows when she’s able to get through, and with her hand still clasped in the girl’s shirt, she pulls her through with difficulty as her lungs begin to burn for air desperately. 

as soon as the girl is through, cheryl looks above her, sees the surface a long way away and tries not to panic despite how scared she is right now.

she tries to swim to the surface while dragging this lifeless body behind her, and her lungs are aching and she can feel herself accidentally swallowing water as her chest aches and her legs begin to grow weary with fatigue, the strange taste of the water making her head pound and her body throb, they’re not gonna make it, they’re gonna die-

her head breaks through the surface and cheryl gasps for air, coughing and spluttering before she’s pulling the little girl’s body up with her with a cry of exhaustion.

the girl’s head comes to rest on her shoulder, her back pressed against cheryl’s chest as the young redhead wraps an arm around her waist and allows the current from the river to lead her to the shore, her body too tired to swim against it on her own. 

she can hear screams of anguish and terror a little way away, can hear the sound of metal creaking and people shouting as she looks behind her to see what’s going on, but she can’t make out anything. it’s all a blur of water and harsh breaths and the cold body pressed against her own as she tightens her grip on the little girl, refusing to let her go.

finally, she feels her body connect with something hard, and she digs her nails into the sand and pulls herself up onto the shore, still dragging that little girl’s body with her until they’re out of the water and she’s collapsing to the ground with a cry of pain, the both of them lying on the bank of sweet water river. cheryl gasps for air wildly, her whole body throbbing painfully before she looks beside her to see the little girl not moving, eyes closed and a cut on her head above her brow bleeding profusely. there’s blood staining the sand beneath her head as well, and cheryl can see how pale she is despite her dark skin-

“hey…hey wake up!” cheryl cries out hoarsely, her throat aching from all the water she’s inhaled as she pushes herself up and grabs the little girl, shaking her roughly while nothing but fear and panic floods her.

“come on! wake up!” 

she feels her body buzzing with something unexplainable, something that feels almost incredible but also terrifying as that twisting feeling in her stomach intensifies, and when she reaches down to grab the little girl’s hand, there’s this spark she can’t explain that courses through her entire body before-

she sees a flash of white emanate from the little girl’s hands before this almost cloud of black engulfs her own the second their hands make contact, cheryl’s eyes widening as she watches it happen in complete and utter awe, this energy between them buzzing louder and brighter and causing her whole body to throb before the girl is suddenly coughing and spluttering, a slew of water bursting from her mouth as cheryl cries in relief and pulls her hand away to roll her onto her side, and the second she lets go, the strange white light and the cloud of black coming from both their hands disappears.

cheryl frowns, but notices the girl is still choking slightly and rolls her to her side further, where she continues coughing until she’s finally drawing in ragged breaths, her entire body shaking.

“you’re okay! it’s okay!” cheryl coos softly, running her hands up and down the girl’s body before she’s brushing back her brown hair that’s matted to her skin. she’s shivering, her teeth chattering and her brows furrowed as her eyes flutter closed. she rolls onto her back once more, and cheryl sighs before, without hesitation despite the black and blue marks on her arms, she reaches for the hem of her hoodie and slowly peels it up and off her soaking body, a hoodie she’d stolen from jason last year that’s already far too big for her, lifting it up over her head and placing it over the girl to keep her warm. 

what the hell just happened? she could’ve sworn this girl wasn’t breathing a moment ago…her skin was so pale…

“we’re gonna be okay…just keep breathing…” she whispers, watching as the girl shivers with her eyes rolling in the back of her head as her hands grip the hoodie for warmth.

cheryl’s eyes fall down to something shining purple to the right of her, right by the knee of the girl shivering on the ground beside her, hands reaching out to grab a silver, purple tinted necklace of what looks like a snake…

she frowns, eyeing it before she looks down at the little girl who is still struggling to breath before the sound of screaming on the other side of the riverbank has her heart falling to somewhere down her toes. 

“JASON!? CHERYL?!”

it’s her mother’s voice…she’d know that scream from anywhere, especially of her name…

cheryl looks down at the little girl, conflicted, not wanting to leave her, but her mother’s frantic screams grow louder, and cheryl jumps up and leans down to kiss the girl’s brow above her gaping wound while securing the hoodie over her body.

it’s bright red, she should be able to spot it-

“i’ll come back for you…i’ll bring help, i promise.”

she jumps up and runs across the riverbanks, the necklace still clutched in her fist as she runs desperately to find her mother, so she can help her get back to the little girl, so they can get her to a hospital.

she didn’t even get her name…

“CHERYL? JASON?”

she runs towards the noise, hears another loud, deeper voice shout for someone else-

“ANTOINETTE!? BABY, WHERE ARE YOU!?”

cheryl feels her heart skip a beat for reasons she can’t explain before-

“CHERYL?!”

“MOMMY!” cheryl finally spins around at the sound of her mother’s voice, her feet carrying her and the other voice forgotten as she makes it to where the festival is, sees her mother’s bright red hair amongst all the smoke and fire and chaos of people running and screaming and runs straight for it, tears falling down her cheeks as her mother turns at the sound of her voice and falls to her knees with a cry of relief.

“oh thank god!” cheryl collapses into her mother’s arms, feels a strange sense of accomplishment at the fact that her mother is holding her like this when she never really has before when her mother pulls back and grips her arms tightly, causing her to wince at the bruises already covering her arms.

“where’s your brother?” she begs, eyes filled with panic as cheryl whimpers and looks around her wildly.

jason…jason was at the bottom, waiting for them to do a round of the wheel…

“i…i don’t know, he was at the b-bottom waiting for us to come around the wheel-.”

oh god, her brother…where’s her brother, where’s jason?

“at the bottom of where, cheryl?!” penelope cries, shaking her slightly as cheryl trembles and shakes her head.

“of the f-ferris wheel! he was too scared to go on it so i w-went on it without him-.”

“why?! why would you do that?! you stupid little girl, why would you leave him!?” penelope shouts, digging her fingers in deeper and causing cheryl to choke on a sob from the pain as she tries to process what’s going on.

jason…oh god, jason, where is he, what has she done?

with the necklace still clutched tightly in her fist, cheryl blossom runs forward with her mother screaming her brother’s name, all thoughts of the little girl on the riverbanks a couple hundred feet away forgotten, unaware of just how much has changed…and just how much that little girl will be apart of that change.


	2. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hallllllloooo here's the next chapter, I hope you guys enjoy it! again, to stay updated on when new chapters are coming, you can check out my twitter: @endofdaysforme. 
> 
> leave a comment letting me know what you think! a lot of people asked if they needed to watch cloak and dagger to understand what's going on in this fic and the short answer is: no. everything will be answered in this fic as to what's going on, BUT I do recommend you still watch the show! maybe once this fic is over though :P
> 
> anyway enough rambling from me, enjoy!

**ten years later**

she tries her best to ignore the way her stomach growls, but it’s truly a lost cause as she licks her dry, chapped lips and peeks her head around the corner of the alleyway about thirty feet away from her destination.

she knows she shouldn’t be here, but she’s managed to do this for nine years now without getting caught…it’s the perfect time to do it.

four in the morning with the sun barely grazing the horizon and not a single northsider in sight. she scratches at her forehead, fingers faintly tracing over the thin scar above her eyebrow before she pulls the hood up of the red jumper she’s wearing, sleeves rolled up for some relief from the pounding summer heat as she makes her way towards the diner with flashing neon lights. 

she twists the ring on her middle finger of her left hand subconsciously, her thumb brushing over the glass that covers an insignia of a green snake curled around a spear, the sadness and despair gripping her over what this ring means to her and who it used to belong to as the words that were said when she was given it echo through her mind.

_“he would’ve wanted you to have it, kid.”_

she blinks back her tears and swallows down her grief as she makes her way up the steps of the diner with a sharp inhale of breath, trying her best to focus on the task at hand.

the bell rings loudly above her, causing her to wince as she glances around the diner quickly to see if anyone is nearby, double, triple checking that she’s safe from harm. the place looks completely empty, and pop tate, the owner of the establishment she’s just walked into, looks at her with a sigh before he’s smiling sadly and waving her over. 

“hey pop…” she calls out hoarsely, glancing around quickly once more as pop shakes his head with a chuckle.

“no one’s around, toni. you always pick the right time to come in.” he teases, patting the counter gently as an invitation. toni grins despite herself and plops down in a seat in front of the counter as pop tate grabs a plate on the counter behind him that contains a half eaten cheeseburger and a couple of fries.

it’s not much, but toni practically groans and reaches for it desperately, sliding it towards herself and taking a bite of the cold burger before she can stop herself as pop tate sighs and shakes his head with a look of guilt in his eyes.

“toni, i’m happy to make you a full meal instead of giving you leftovers-.”

“no. i haven’t got any money to give you and besides, the food everyone doesn’t finish goes to waste anyway, why not put it in my stomach instead of the bin?” she says through a mouthful of food, prompting pop tate to roll his eyes with a chuckle and yet another shake of his head.

toni chews on her burger happily, her stomach almost purring contently, and it’s quiet for a few moments as pop watches toni devour the food before he sighs and reaches out to grip her shoulder suddenly.

“how are things going on the other side?” he asks softly, concern in his eyes and dripping from his voice.

and oh what a strange thing, for a northsider to be asking…

toni hesitates, chews on her burger and contemplates telling pop tate the truth.

that everything is terrible. that it has been terrible for nine years now, ever since the serpents officially went broke and disbanded before becoming what they are now. homeless, thieving, southside scum, all of them. or what’s left of them, anyway, holing up in the old serpent bar called ‘the whyte wyrm’ for refuge. that ten years ago, when her father, their leader, died in the explosion on the july fourth disaster, everything fell apart.

that when he was blamed for the explosion, when the entire northside of riverdale, especially alice cooper in that goddamn newspaper of hers, had named him the perpetrator and had spent months smearing his name, the serpents were hunted down, beaten to death or lynched or driven out of town until now, there’s barely a handful of them left. that they’re forced to stay in secret in the whyte wyrm for refuge, only allowed to come out at night to scurry for food and supplies like goddamn vampires because they’re too afraid to come to the northside during the day.

the southside is barren wasteland now, nothing exists of it anymore except the whyte wyrm, and toni has no idea how much longer that place will be up for. even their old trailer park where they used to stay before they were evicted by the mayor is a ghost town…toni’s dreading the day they decide to tear it all down, but she can’t focus on that right now…every day is just about surviving the next one, and the next, and the next…

so yes, she contemplates telling pop tate the truth. that she spends most of her nights sneaking into the northside to find food for the others stuck in the wyrm. or that some of those nights, she even makes the two hour foot trek to greendale to steal from the rich, a modern day goddamn robin hood breaking into homes or stealing wallets from those with four hundred dollar watches on their wrists because she wouldn’t dare do it to people on the northside with all the history they have until she finally caves from hunger and comes here to see him every three or four days for half a meal to celebrate getting them through another week. that despite the serpents no longer existing, she feels responsible for the ones that still do, because her father was their leader and little antoinette topaz knows that job is now on her to keep them safe. 

but instead, she smiles and shrugs, blinks back her tears and takes another bite of her burger, and pop tate sighs and is about to say something when the sound of the bell ringing behind her has toni’s entire body tensing up like a livewire. 

_fuck, fuck, fuck…_

it’s dangerous right now for her to be seen by any northsiders, even more so now that it’s coming up to the ten year anniversary of the fourth of july disaster, and even though toni knows in her heart her father wasn’t responsible, the rest of the town thinks he is, if they see her here…the daughter of the man who destroyed so many innocent lives…

she quickly rips the ring on her finger off it, shoving it into her pocket as she looks up at pop tate, but he’s staring at whoever’s just come through the door with a concerned frown on his face before he calls out suddenly, prompting toni’s heart to fall further for the attention drawn to them right now.

“is everything okay, sweetheart?” he asks softly. toni still doesn’t turn around, too afraid to do so as she hears a small sniffle behind her and the sound of feet shuffling before-

“i’m okay, pop. just don’t want to be home right now…do you mind if i stay here?” a soft, almost angelic voice says behind her, a voice that’s definitely female, a voice that has toni wanting to desperately turn around, to see who the owner of this voice that’s sent a shiver down her spine is, but she doesn’t, simply keeps her head down and her hoodie up as pop tate sighs and nods once.

“of course. i’ll get you something to eat.” he mumbles, a sympathetic look in his eyes that toni’s only ever really seen him use on her as he turns towards the kitchens.

“okay…thank you, pop.” 

she hears the sound of heels clonking on the tiled floor, getting more and more distant to the left of her as toni looks up at pop tate to see him watch whoever it is go with a sad look in his eyes. he doesn’t say another word to toni, turns back to the kitchen to no doubt make the stranger a meal, and toni finally pulls her head up from her burger to see a figure with bright red hair all the way at the end of the diner sitting at one of the booths with her back facing toni, her hair falling over her shoulders and her head bowed as toni licks her lips and notices…

a fucking prada purse. just sitting on top of the table, a purse that’s gotta be well over three grand in value, shit…she could feed the serpents for _months_ with that money…

_no, toni, don’t do it…it’s too fucking dangerous, just finish your meal and go!_

but the serpents are crumbling, they’re starving and weak and…she has to do _something_, she can’t sit by and let them die. she’s leading them now, she has to save them…

but this girl already looks so defeated and broken, she can see it in the way her shoulders are slumped forward, toni can’t just steal her fucking purse and run off, she’s not that cruel…and it’s dangerous, way too fucking dangerous, there’s a reason she’s stuck to doing the stealing in greendale…she doesn’t live there, they won’t find her, won’t suspect someone from a town over would be doing the stealing…

maybe if she can explain her situation-

_don’t be dumb!_

it’s a fucking prada purse…surely if the girl can afford that, she can afford to replace it? she’s probably got a whole damn closet of purses just like it, she won’t mind if one is gone…

it’s a million different conflicting emotions, and toni’s sitting there like an idiot, her mind racing and her heart pounding, because every part of her is telling her not to do this but she’s so fucking desperate to get the serpents out of this situation, fuck…she’s willing to risk her life right now, she always has been willing to risk her life for them…

she won’t hurt the girl, of course she won’t, but that purse…it could help save lives, she has to try at least-

she’s jumping up out of her seat and rushing towards the girl’s booth before she can stop herself.

the girl is still slumped forward in her seat with her back turned to her, and all toni can see is the back of her red head as she texts away on her phone with another sniffle, and toni ignores the ache in her heart at the sound and simply slows her steps down so she isn’t heard, creeping up slowly and softly as sweat begins to build on her brow, is she really fucking doing this right now-

too late to back out now.

she snatches the handle of the purse and spins on her feet, heading straight for the door as she hears the redhead scream in shock before the sound of heels clomping on the floor echoes out behind her just as she reaches the front door-

“POP, CALL THE COPS!” she hears the girl scream, and toni’s heart drops as she stumbles slightly at the threat of police showing up, tripping over the dip from the sidewalk to the parking lot before-

“HEY!”

a cold hand reaches out and grips her own not holding the purse, and before toni can even fucking blink or try to yank her hand out of this girl’s grasp, she sees a flash of white and something dark before she feels her feet lift from the ground out of nowhere, her entire body thrown back and the purse flying out of her grasp as she lands in a heap on her front, chest colliding with the gravel and asphalt of the parking lot of pop’s diner.

her chin smacks the concrete too, causing her to groan in pain as she glances up to see the redhead girl is also flat on her back a few feet away from her, crying in pain and clutching her side as she pushes herself up slowly with a wince to look at toni in surprise.

and toni finally gets a proper look at her face, and feels the wind get knocked out of her a second time.

she’s…_beautiful._

toni stares at her dumbfoundly, taking in her flawless ivory skin and her full pink lips, her slightly bloodshot and puffy brown eyes and her long red hair that cascades down her shoulders as she slowly begins to push herself up off the ground, and toni is still laying there in shock before it dawns on her that this girl is getting up and she’s rooted to the floor.

and she just tried to rob her.

and she swears she can hear sirens in the distance-

_fuck the fucking purse, get out of here!_

toni jumps up and runs without looking back, ignoring the sound of the girl calling out for her to stop as she guns it straight to the bridge between the north and southside without taking a break for a single moment, her mind still scrambling to understand what just happened.

why was she thrown back like some invisible force had hooked a line around her waist and yanked her back the second she made contact with that girl? and what was that bright light? or that weird cloud of darkness? what the hell just happened?

fuck, she has no fucking clue, but right now, with her thighs aching and her entire body buzzing with this strange energy she can’t explain as she wipes away the blood on her chin, all toni can focus on right now is getting the fuck back to the whyte wyrm before some northsider finds her and kills her.

meanwhile, the redhead she’s left behind stares at her prada purse that’s been abandoned on the floor, her mind racing and her heart pounding as she stares down at her hand in confusion, trying to understand the weird black cloud that had surrounded it when she touched that girl.

she swears she’s seen it before too, but she can’t put her finger on where…

_maybe you should focus more on the fact that you almost just got robbed, you idiot!_

“miss cheryl! are you alright?” she feels gentle fingers grip her shoulder before someone grips her hand, and cheryl blossom looks up to see pop tate looking down at her with a worried expression, her hand gripping his tighter for just a moment of reassurance that she’s safe.

she’s safe…

“i’m fine, pop. thank you.” cheryl says in a small voice, pushing herself up off the ground with pop’s help and brushing off the dirt on her hands and skirt. she sighs and hears the sound of sirens in the distance, and pop tate’s worried expression only grows more concerned before he looks at cheryl anxiously. 

“miss cheryl…please don’t go telling the police anything.” he whispers. cheryl’s eyes widen, nothing but shock pounding through her as she scoffs and shakes her head before pointing in the direction the girl ran off to. 

“what?! pop, that girl tried to rob me-.”

“she’s just a kid, same as you! she’s got no money, no home, and she’s desperate! she wouldn’t do what she did unless she was, she’s…she’s a good person, miss cheryl, i’ve known her a long time. she’s just scared…” pop tate says sadly, the look in his eyes bringing cheryl to a standstill as she frowns and purses her lips, contemplating her next move.

god, she ran away from home for the night to get away from the craziness, not to get thrust into more of it…who the hell was that girl? and why did she try to steal a prada purse that’s at least three years old? it’s not like it’s worth more than a couple grand now…

“who is she?” she echoes her thoughts, turning to pop tate, who hesitates before scratching the back of his head with a sigh.

“her name is-.”

the sirens get closer until a cop car is turning the corner and entering the parking lot, red and blue lights flashing, and pop tate throws one last pleading look at cheryl, who bites her lip before she finally makes her decision-

and nods.

“i…i won’t say anything. but i expect free milkshakes for a week.” she teases.

and pop tate very visibly relaxes and lets out a chuckle before he winks at her.

“thank you, miss cheryl. and we’ll make it a year.” 

—

cheryl doesn’t end up saying a word. she and pop pretended that nothing at all happened, and that pop tate’s call to them must have been a prank call from someone else, because there was nothing to report. cheryl had kept her purse close by, and the cop was understandably pissed off at his time being wasted, but had jumped back into his car and taken off without a word more to them. 

cheryl still has no fucking clue why she’s helping to protect the girl who tried to rob her, but pop tate had seemed really worried about her, and it’s not like that girl trying to steal from her was the worst thing about her night. she’s pretty sure the bruises on her arms from her mother gripping her so damn hard take the cake on that one…

besides, cheryl still can’t explain the way she had felt when she had gripped that girl’s hand…that weird bright light and that cloud of darkness that took over both their hands, the way they had both been thrown back, why did that happen? 

cheryl remembers something like that happening, almost like it’s deja vu, but she can’t place when or where…she remembers white lights and a black cloud of smoke, but from where, she has no idea…

she pulls into the driveway of thornhill, her mind still on that girl and fatigue causing her eyes to itch because she hadn’t gone back home after the incident at pop’s, had chosen instead to drive around until the morning when both her parents weren’t home, and the girl is quickly wiped from her mind as she rushes inside to avoid interacting with anyone, wishing it was the end of the summer holidays instead of the beginning so she wouldn’t have to put up with being on edge all the time in this goddamn home…

she goes upstairs and crashes on top of her bed, ignores her texts from her friends and allows her eyes to close with her mind still on that girl, unable to get her out for even a second as she drifts off to sleep.

meanwhile, on the southside of town, up on the inside balcony inside the whyte wyrm, toni is fiddling with the ties of her red hoodie she has on, laying on her back on the thin mattress on the ground as she stares up at the ceiling with a frown, trying to come to terms with what happened earlier in the morning as her thumb brushes over the small cut on her chin.

how the hell did she get thrown back by some invisible force when she touched that girl? and secondly, _who was_ that girl? there’s something about her that toni can’t quite put her finger on, but with the way the serpents had looked at her in disappointment when she came in with nothing has her feeling upset that she didn’t run off with the damn purse.

which in turn makes her feel guilty because that girl looked like she was already going through something, and taking her purse would’ve been an asshole move. she prefers to steal from people who deserve it, and that girl didn’t look like she deserved it. 

she sighs and fiddles with the strings once more, teeth gnawing on her bottom lip before she looks at her hand with a frown of confusion. 

she saw that flash of white light…did it come from her? it…it seemed like it did, but it can’t be possible, right? 

she knows she shouldn’t dwell on it…the chances of her running into that girl again are slim to none, but she can’t seem to stop thinking about it. it’s been hours and all she can see when she closes her eyes is red hair and brown eyes…brown eyes that she could’ve sworn had the same pain as hers reflected in them…

her stomach grumbles, and toni sighs and rubs her hand over it with a shake of her head.

she can’t go back to pop’s anytime soon, but she can’t take any food she gets from the other serpents in here…they need it just as bad as she does. 

maybe she can just meet pop tate himself outside next time instead? ask him to just bring it to her instead of walking in? she can’t afford something like that happening again. 

she reaches into the pockets of her hoodie and pulls out her father's ring, stares down at it for a whole time and finds herself blinking back tears at the thought of how disappointed her father would be in her right now if he saw what she's led the serpents to. poverty, homelessness, starvation...

but it's not like she had much of a say in the matter, is it? the northside drove them to this, she's just doing the best she can with a shit situation...surely he'd be proud of her for trying?

regardless, toni realizes, as she turns onto her side and curls up under her hoodie further, that no matter what happens or what she thinks, she’s right about one thing.

she won’t be seeing that red haired girl ever again. 

—

“cheryl, is everything okay? you seem distracted.”

josie mccoy’s voice barely registers in cheryl’s ears, her mind racing and her eyes constantly straying back to pop tate himself as they sit in the man’s diner and enjoy dinner with their other group of friends including veronica lodge, betty cooper, kevin keller, archie andrews and reggie mantle.

it’s been a few days now since cheryl’s encounter with that strange girl. it’s her first time at pop’s since then, and cheryl hasn’t been able to stop looking at pop tate, because she wants to know. she _ needs_ to know. pop tate had said he knew that girl, and they had been ambushed by that cop before cheryl could get an answer from him as to who that girl was.

now, she’s determined to find out. because she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about her since that day…she saw the way that girl slammed into the concrete, she must be hurt...

“yeah, i’m…fine.” cheryl says with a reassuring smile to josie, who offers her one back before her attention returns to archie, who is talking about…something.

honestly, cheryl has no idea, and with that resolution entering her brain, she excuses herself and jumps up before she makes her way over to pop tate with a shaky exhale and a nod. there’s only one way she’s gonna get answers, and as much as she knows her friends are watching her in confusion, she ignores them as best as she can.

she needs to know.

as soon as she approaches the man, he visibly tenses up, eyes widening as he gives her a slightly terrified look at her incoming, clearly aware of the plan formulating in her mind.

“miss cheryl…hi. i hope you’re feeling better from the other day.” he says almost stiffly, that nervousness still shining in his eyes despite his smile as cheryl comes to a stop in front of him.

“i am, pop, thank you. but there is something i wanted to talk to you about from that day.” cheryl says firmly. pop tate’s smile quickly fades, and he sighs in resignation before he purses his lips and nods.

“i have a feeling i know what it’s going to be about, but…of course. go ahead, miss cheryl.” he says with an almost sad and resigned smile.

cheryl licks her lips before she takes a seat at the counter and crosses her arms on top of it, leaning in closer to him so no one can eavesdrop on them.

“pop, that girl from the other day…who was she?” cheryl asks softly. pop tate bows his head and glances quickly from side to side to make sure no one is listening in on their conversation before he also leans in closer to her.

“miss cheryl, you don’t understand…i’ve known that girl since she was a child. she’s a good person, and i don’t know why she did what she did-.” he starts, but cheryl quickly interrupts with a shake of her head.

“i don’t care about that, pop, i just…i want to know who she is.” cheryl says quickly to reassure him. pop tate frowns but eventually concedes and nods before he leans in closer so they aren’t heard.

“her name…is toni. she’s…miss cheryl, she’s from the southside.” 

cheryl’s heart immediately drops down to her toes, thumping loudly and almost causing her head to spin. 

the southside…all cheryl’s ever heard about that side of town is that it was filled with nothing but criminals and gangs. as far as she knows, nothing exists of it anymore, and cheryl doesn’t know all the details, but what she does know…

what she does know is that those who were part of the gang known as ‘the southside serpents’ were the ones responsible for the explosion on the day of july fourth almost ten years ago…the day cheryl lost her twin brother, jason. 

it’s an ache that still pains her, something that still haunts her to this day that she left jason at the bottom of the ferris wheel to die…her parents were never good to her, cheryl has to admit, but after that day…everything became ten times worse. not a day goes by where her father doesn’t yell at her, where her mother doesn’t grip her too hard or chastise her for the smallest things…

they blame her for jason’s death, she knows they do. and why shouldn't they? she blames herself.

and it hurts, god does it hurt to think about him, to know that he’s no longer here, all because of that gang on the southside and their vendetta against the northside, but cheryl doesn’t feel like they’re to blame because, well…she’s the one who left him…it's her fault, and it always will be...

cheryl shakes her head, trying to eliminate those thoughts before she starts crying or breaking down as she always does whenever she thinks about it, and instead looks to pop in surprise.

“the southside?”

details may have been kept from her to protect her innocence, but cheryl knows those people on the southside were practically hunted down or driven out of town by those that blamed them for the attack. cheryl doesn’t know what to believe, but it made sense for the southside serpents to be responsible. her father had banned them from attending the fourth of july event, blaming them for the rise in drug use and distribution across riverdale, it’s possible that they caused everything that happened…

“yes…i believe she used to be a southside serpent, or she was at least affiliated with them as a child. when everything that happened…_happened_, she lost everything. she comes here sometimes, just for some food, a hot meal for herself, but she mostly looks after the others who have no homes, or money-.”

“wait…she’s homeless?”

cheryl can’t understand why the fact that toni is a southside serpent isn’t the first thing that’s burning through her brain. because all she can think about is how she doesn’t have a home…toni doesn’t have a home, oh god…

the purse….this is why she wanted it…

“yes, miss cheryl. i’m afraid so.” pop tate says solemnly. cheryl lets out a shaky breath and runs her fingers through her hair.

“god…no wonder she tried to grab my purse, it’s value alone could keep her afloat for weeks…” cheryl murmurs, guilt gripping her tightly over, god, she doesn’t even know, her wealth? the fact that she has a roof over her head while god only knows where toni stays…

she shouldn’t be thinking about the person who tried to rob her like this, but she can’t help it.

there’s something about her…

“i’m sorry, miss cheryl. i didn’t know she would do that-.”

“no, it’s…it’s fine. if she comes back, can you tell her, pop? that i’m not mad at her or anything like that and…and i’d like to meet her again, properly this time.” cheryl says with a soft smile. she knows she probably sounds insane, and judging by pop tate’s expression when she says it confirms her suspicions, but cheryl hasn’t been able to get toni out of her mind for days and, well…

cheryl wants to see her again. she _needs_ to see her again.

pop tate looks at her in surprise, eyes blinking rapidly before he clears his throat and nods with a smile.

“alright, i’ll pass the message on.” 

—

it’s been a week.

toni can’t take it anymore.

she’s weak, she feels lightheaded, her stomach keeps clenching and at this point, she’s pretty sure she’s ready to devour a horse. 

the others at the whyte wyrm are nice and fed, it's time for her to look after herself now.

she lets out a shaky breath before she’s licking her dry lips, pulling her hoodie up over her head to cover her face and making her way towards pop’s diner, its neon lights shining bright and almost hurting her eyes as a migraine pounds through her head. 

she’s so beyond exhausted, hasn’t been able to sleep a wink since she was almost caught stealing a few bags of chips from a gas station in greendale a few days ago, and the hunger pounding through her is making her dizzy. 

it’s two in the morning, a different time than she usually shows up, and she’s hoping it’s a true dead point in the night where the possibility of anyone being around is lowered. she doesn’t want to run into that redhead or anyone at all again, and so because of that, toni stays hidden behind the dumpster of pop’s diner for a long time, waiting to hear for any noises at all, but it’s dead.

and so, twenty minutes after her arrival, toni sighs and makes her way towards the entrance quickly, wanting to just get in and get out as soon as possible, contemplates maybe knocking on the front door to get pop tate’s attention, but that'll probably also get the attention of anyone inside...

what if _she's_ inside?

“you look new!” 

toni’s heart sinks. 

she stops short, her legs immediately beginning to shake and panic quickly taking over as she hears two pairs of footsteps behind her. 

_no, no, no, please…please, no-_

“need a tour of riverdale, sweetheart?” she hears a guy call, his words immediately causing her heart to pound against her chest wildly as his friend laughs loudly beside him, their words slurred slightly, meaning they're definitely drunk...and definitely from the northside.

the only bar still standing on the southside is the whyte wyrm and it's not exactly open for business...

“i’m g-good, thanks.” toni murmurs, making her way through the parking lot without turning around to face these people, pulling her hood up further around her face to keep it hidden as her hand reaches for the ring on her finger to hide it in her pocket.

the last thing she needs them seeing right now is the ring of tobias topaz on her finger...

“you from around here?” it’s a second voice now, deeper, and more firm as toni continues walking-

“hey, you’re being a little rude! you can at least say ‘hi’!” 

—

the sheets don't smell like him anymore, but still...it brings her comfort.

cheryl knows she's not allowed in here, but she can't help herself from entering this room just for a moment of reprieve, particularly on days where her mother decides to use her as a verbal or physical punching bag like she had this afternoon.

and all over a simple reply to a question that, yes, may have come out a lot snarkier than intended-

“CHERYL!?” 

she jumps at the sound of her father’s booming voice from down the hallway, her body immediately beginning to tremble in fear as she curls up further under the covers of her brother’s small bed, because she knows she's not allowed in here, but sometimes she just needs a second of reprieve from the mother who hates her and the father who drinks his life away, a moment to remember the one person in this house who did love her once upon a time, and she's praying her father doesn’t come in here to ruin it all for her but of course-

the door slams open, and cheryl flinches under the covers, a whimper escaping her as she hears pounding footsteps before the covers are being thrown off her body and harsh fingers are digging into her bicep.

“how many times have i told you not to come in here?!” he’s yanking her off the bed, her arm throbbing as she tries to pull herself away desperately with a cry of pain.

“daddy, please!”

“this is _jason’s_ room, cheryl! how dare you come in here when you’re part of the reason he’s gone?!” clifford screams, his words slightly slurred, the smell of whiskey coming off him, stagnant in his breath as he hisses out his words, and when he trips over his own feet, cheryl stumbles out of his grip as he drags her to the door, her ankle twisting slightly as she takes the opportunity and finds herself back under the covers of the bed with nowhere else to hide-

—

fuck, fuck, fuck-

“I d-don’t want any t-trouble, okay?” toni chokes out loudly, her feet carrying her faster now to get to the front door of pop’s as the two men’s footsteps grow closer behind her, stalking her, like she’s goddamn prey-

“why would there be any trouble? unless you’re a southsider!” one of them jokes, laughs with his friend, scoffing as toni comes to a standstill, nothing but fear and anxiety pounding through her as both men also stop short. toni’s grip on the ring in the palm of her hand tightens, trying to draw her father’s strength from it because right now, all she feels is fear.

and when their next words have nothing but hostility in them, toni starts to contemplate if this is her last night on earth. 

“you’re not a southsider, are you?”

she’s so dead, she’s so fucking dead-

“n-no.”

her voice is pitched five octaves higher, shaking, trembling, her whole body is, she’s going to die tonight, that’s it, it’s over-

“you are, aren’t you? why else would you be showing up in the middle of the damn night!?” one of them barks angrily, and toni’s running around pop’s diner to the alleyway before she can stop herself, legs pounding on the ground-

“southside scum! let’s get her!” 

—

“cheryl, that’s enough! get off that bed!” 

a belt whipping through the air, a belt she’s felt way too many times against her pale skin-

cheryl’s eyes squeeze shut, she’s scared, she’s so fucking scared-

“CHERYL!” 

her heart clenching, this strange energy pounding through her body, buzzing, bones throbbing beneath her skin, head aching, muscles tensing as a scream escapes her-

—

“you’re dead, southsider!”

toni’s entire body enters fight or flight mode, this strange energy suddenly buzzing throughout her muscles and her bones as out of nowhere-

her hands light up, the energy causing her stomach to turn as she looks down at her hands.

bright white and shining, in a way that almost blinds her before toni feels something heavy in her hands, something sharp-

her eyes adjust, and in her hands, almost like crystals, but…knives? white shining knives?! what the hell is this?!

_what the fuck is going on?!_

toni looks up at the two men, who advance on her, both of them barely even noticing what’s happening in front of their eyes, their hatred for her outweighing everything when they don’t even know her…just because she’s a southsider, god, they don't even look like they're old enough to have understood anything that happened back then-

“stay back!” toni screams, raising these strange knives in her hands in defense as her hands glow brighter, and both men stop short, finally taking notice of what’s happening as their eyes widen in shock.

“what the f-.”

a cloud of black smoke suddenly appears from the corner of her eye, causing toni to spin around wildly, as…right before her very eyes-

the redhead from pop’s, the one she tried to rob last week…she just…materializes. out of thin fucking air. out of literally nowhere. 

the cloud of black smoke fades as the redhead, who has her arms raised over her head protectively, looks around wildly, eyes wide and bloodshot and filled with fear as her hands drop and she looks at toni in shock.

“yo, what the fuck is going on?!” one of the guys yells, looking at both the redhead and toni in confusion before the other one shakes his head with an angry yell and slaps his hand against his friend’s chest to egg him on.

“whatever, let’s kick this southsider’s ass!” 

they’re both rushing forward, fists raised as toni raises those white daggers once more with a slight whimper and trembling hands-

“hey! leave her alone!” the redhead rushes forward with a cry of anger, and one of them stops short and stares at her while the other reaches out to grab toni, and without hesitation, toni raises the dagger in her hand with a yell and stabs it forward, slashing right through the guy’s forearm, and at the sight of blood, it all becomes too real for toni.

she jumps back with a squeal, bile rising in her throat as the dagger that slashed the man’s arm disintegrates in her hand while the man jumps back and clutches his wound with a look of fear shining in his eyes. 

she cut him, she actually cut him-

“dude, let’s get the fuck out of here!” 

the two men take off, nothing but fear pounding through them, feet slamming into the asphalt to get away as they round the corner of pop’s and completely disappear from sight.

toni’s knees are fucking buckling, knocking together from how hard she’s shaking as the other dagger in her other hand also fades suddenly, the white light no longer shining from her hands as it fades to nothing.

this isn’t happening…whatever the hell this is, it’s not happening, no, whatever this is-

“are you okay?” 

she feels a weight on her shoulder for only the briefest second before that feeling of a hook yanking around her waist happens again, and she’s thrust forward wildly, her entire body lifting off the ground and slamming into the gravel with a thud that immediately has her body throbbing wildly.

there’s still that buzz coursing through her veins, and toni looks up with blurry vision and a groan to see her hands faintly glowing white once again before it fades just as quickly as it appeared. 

“god, why does this keep happening?!” toni hears the redhead exclaim behind her, and she groans and rolls over onto her back, looking up at the sky and the stars for just a second before she’s pushing herself up slowly. the redhead is doing the same a few feet away from her, looking at toni in confusion before she stands and makes her way over to her, but toni inches away out of fear, unable to stop herself, terrified of what will happen if they come near each other again-

“don’t! just leave me alone! where the hell did you even come from?!” toni exclaims, looking around wildly, trying to find the source of that black smoke, staring at her hands, trying to understand-

“i…i d-don’t know! one second i was home and the next i was here! i don’t even know how i got here!” the girl croaks out, teeth gnawing on her bottom lip as she watches toni apprehensively. toni goes to pull the hoodie back up over her head, and she watches the redhead’s eyes as they take her in, looking her up and down from the top of her faded pink haired head to the bottom of her worn out boots…

she needs to get out of here, she just attacked someone, with what, she has no fucking idea but she can’t stay-

“i…i can’t, i have to go-.”

“wait…that’s my hoodie.” the redhead says suddenly, eyes wide as she looks at the piece of clothing over toni’s body. toni’s barely taken a step away from her before she stops short and turns to look at her in confusion.

“what? what are you talking about?” she snaps, her anger getting the better of her that of all the things that’s happened tonight, she seems hung up over a goddamn hoodie that, well yeah, could be hers, but toni's had this thing for as long as she can remember-

“that hoodie! it’s mine-.” 

“no, it’s not! i’ve had this thing since i was a kid!” toni growls, stepping back as the girl steps toward her, and the redhead shakes her head and scoffs before pointing at the hoodie.

“yes it is! i gave it to a little girl…” she trails off, eyes widening even more before she suddenly swallows thickly and licks her lips, looking up at toni to stare into her eyes while the pink haired girl stares back angrily.

“i gave it to a little girl on the fourth of july…ten years ago.” 

toni feels her heart clench tightly, feels all the anger that’s flooding her just _drain_ from her, that buzzing feeling flooding her body once again, a feeling she can’t explain as suddenly…a flash of memories hit her quickly and rapidly. 

it’s memories that she’s blocked, memories that she’s tried so goddamn hard to erase because that day ruined her life, that day caused this downward spiral that’s left her fatherless and homeless and alone, that day destroyed everything, but…she remembers.

she remembers a little girl, the same age as her. she remembers getting on the ferris wheel with her…she remembers the explosion, remembers falling into the water with that girl’s body beneath her, the only thought running through her mind in that moment was protecting her, and the next thing she remembers, she was waking up on shore with the hoodie she’s wearing right now draped over her body.

she kept the hoodie because it brought her comfort in her most harrowing moment…and it still does some days when she feels like there’s no hope whatsoever left.

and that girl that day, the one on the ferris wheel…she had red hair and brown eyes, was pale beyond anything she’d ever witnessed, and toni remembers thinking she was pretty.

the dots connect. the buzzing feeling intensifies. 

“you’re the girl from the ferris wheel.” toni whispers, and for reasons she can’t explain, tears spring to her eyes and quickly fall over her cheeks.

this girl saved her life ten years ago, and as much as toni’s tried her best to block out all the memories from that day, including the girl before her, toni always found herself wondering what happened to her since that day.

and now she’s standing right in front of her, having saved her life for a second time. 

she’s here…

“you’re the girl i pulled out of the water that day…oh my god…” the redhead whispers back, taking another step closer, and this time, toni doesn’t step away, stares at her and drinks her in. she's wearing simple leggings and a slightly oversized shirt, her hair falling in soft curls over her shoulders, she's...beautiful.

it’s her. it’s really her…

the redhead reaches out to touch her hand, and this time, toni does flinch away, a nervous chuckle escaping her as she looks up at the redhead apologetically. 

“uh, maybe…maybe we shouldn’t.” she says with an almost mournful sigh. the redhead purses her lips before she drops her hand and nods.

“yeah, it hasn’t exactly gone well any other time.” she says sadly. toni bites down on her lower lip and truly takes the time to look the redhead over. she looks slightly disheveled, and her eyes are definitely bloodshot like she’s been crying…

something’s happened to her. toni can’t explain any of this shit, can’t explain where this girl came from, why her hands were shining, what those things she used to attack that guy were, but one thing she does know, is that this girl looks upset.

and toni doesn’t like seeing anyone upset. 

toni takes a deep breath in and looks behind her at pop’s, her stomach grumbling once more before she looks to the redhead with a comforting smile. 

“i’m toni.” she says softly. the redhead hesitates before she smiles and actually nods at the restaurant behind her.

“i know. i asked pop tate about you after last week.” she says slyly, a slight flush forming on her cheeks. toni groans and shakes her head, cupping the side of her neck nervously as she remembers that she tried to fucking rob this girl last week-

“fuck…i’m so sorry-.”

“no, it’s okay. no harm no foul.” the redhead says with a chuckle, reaching out to touch toni once more before she stops short with a sharp inhale and a smile, her hand dropping to her side uselessly.

“my name is cheryl. it’s nice to finally meet you, toni.” 

cheryl…she finally has her name…

“it’s nice to meet you too, cheryl.” toni breathes, unable to contain the excitement buzzing through her as cheryl bites down on her bottom lip and lets out a shaky breath.

“well, considering we’re both here and there’s _clearly_ something going on with us, did…did you maybe want to head inside for some breakfast so we can try and figure this all out?” cheryl asks softly. toni’s heart sinks, this embarrassment immediately settling in her bones and causing her skin to flush because this girl had a prada purse last week and toni doesn’t even have a goddamn dime to her name, but for reasons she can’t explain, she simply tells cheryl the truth.

“i…i don’t have any money-.” she starts, but cheryl shakes her head and reaches out to grab her once again, stopping herself just in time with an almost frustrated sigh before she looks up at toni with a smile. 

“that won’t be an issue, toni. please have breakfast with me?”

toni hesitates for only the briefest moment, but staring into cheryl’s brown eyes filled with hope, she finds herself blurting out an answer before she can think about the consequences.

“okay.” 

—

“so…you’re telling me you just kinda showed up here…from your house? out of nowhere?” toni says slowly, the look on her face one of utter confusion as cheryl chuckles and nods once, her own confusion gripping her as toni frowns and looks down at her hands suddenly with a shake of her head. 

“my hands lit up, too. and those daggers, they just kind of materialized…none of this makes any sense.” toni says firmly, looking up at cheryl, who shrugs and leans back into the booth they’re sitting at in pop’s diner with a sigh.

“i don’t understand it, either. i was just really scared and wanted to get away and suddenly, i was here.” cheryl mumbles, her thoughts returning to her father and what he must be thinking of her sudden disappearing act when toni’s voice breaks through her mind. 

“why were you scared?” toni asks with a frown of concern. cheryl’s heart drops, cursing herself for the slip up as she clears her throat and shakes her head quickly to reassure her new friend.

“uh, it’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” she says easily. toni’s eyes narrow in suspicion before she runs her fingers through her pink hair shakily.

“god, how…_why_ is this happening? and why is it happening to us? we haven’t even seen each other for ten years, we forgot all about each other and suddenly, all of _this?_” toni hisses under her breath, her frustration clearly getting the better of her as cheryl licks her lips and leans in a little closer, wishing she could reach out to touch the girl before her, but she can’t.

she has no idea what will happen if they make skin to skin contact. 

“hey, i’m not sure, but…look, let’s lay down the facts we know, okay?” cheryl says, trying to get some semblance of control over the situation as toni sighs and sinks back into the booth while cheryl ploughs on. 

“fact one, ten years ago, we both almost died that day at the festival. i pulled us out of the water.” cheryl says simply. 

“mmm, fact two…we met each other again last week, and when we touched, we both got blown back.” toni says with a firm nod.

“fact three, the same thing happened tonight when we tried to touch again. and i somehow magically teleported to you and you formed…daggers made of white light?” cheryl concludes. toni rolls her eyes, but nods before she leans in closer, pursing her lips as she does. 

“i saw you out of the corner of my eye tonight. you appeared in some kind of black smoke.” she says firmly. cheryl frowns, her mind spinning before she looks up at toni in shock as a memory suddenly hits her.

the day she pulled toni out of the river, their hands connected, and she saw it…god, she saw the black smoke-

“the day…the day of the incident, when i pulled you up onto the shore, i touched your hand and…and this black smoke surrounded my hand, and this white light shined out of yours.” cheryl croaks out. toni’s eyes widen, her mouth opening and closing several times as she processes cheryl’s words before she nods slowly.

“so this whole thing, whatever’s going on with us, you think it started on that day when the accident happened?” she asks. cheryl contemplates it for a few moments. 

it makes the most sense to her. but then again…

“i think so. maybe the explosion did something to us.”

“but why are we only showing symptoms now? it’s been ten years, i haven’t had any white lights shine out of my hands in that time till now, have you?” toni asks anxiously, voicing cheryl’s inner thoughts. they haven’t shown any kind of symptoms for over a decade, and now they are? it doesn’t make sense…

cheryl shakes her head, and toni sinks back into the booth once again with a sigh of frustration just as pop tate makes his way towards them with a large plate of pancakes, bacon, hashbrowns and two milkshakes, one chocolate, one strawberry. 

“milkshakes are on the house, girls. eat to your heart’s content.” pop tate says with a smile. toni’s head snaps up, but before she can protest, cheryl pipes up.

“how about instead of free milkshakes for a year for not turning toni in last week, we make this meal free, pop?” she says quickly. toni frowns, but pop tate thankfully chuckles before he gives her a small wink.

“you got it, miss cheryl. if you’re hungry for anything else just let me know.” cheryl smiles as pop tate walks away, and toni hesitates, stares down at the plate with pure hunger in her eyes as cheryl chuckles and pushes the plate towards her, her stomach still queasy from everything that’s happened tonight.

“go for it, toni. you’re probably starving.” toni licks her lips, almost salivating at the idea of food before she’s looking at cheryl apprehensively. 

“you didn’t turn me in. why?”

“pop asked me not to. eat, please.” cheryl says quickly, not even sure why she doesn’t just tell toni the truth.

that there’s something about her that cheryl can’t explain…something that’s stopping her from doing anything that could put this girl in harm’s way despite the fact that she literally tried to rob her last week. 

toni hesitates again for only another second before she’s pulling the plate towards her and reaching for the cutlery, and cheryl’s eyes fall on the red hoodie covering toni’s body, her heart clenching at the sight of it.

she remembers looking for it for about a week after the incident, remembers crying her heart out over losing it because it was the last piece of jason she had left before she had remembered who she left it with…

“so you’ve had my hoodie this whole time?”

cheryl stares in disbelief at the girl sitting opposite her, but a soft smile takes over her face at the sight of toni shoveling down a pancake doused in her family’s signature blossom maple syrup, a hungry moan escaping her as she looks up at cheryl with a firm nod. cheryl finds herself chuckling when toni chews hurriedly and swallows before answering.

_for a southsider, she has good manners…_

“yeah. i don’t know why, it just…comforted me. still does. can’t explain it.” toni murmurs, eyes downcast as she bites on a piece of bacon. cheryl smiles despite herself, pursing her lips to stop it from showing as she clears her throat, a hand flying up to touch the purple tinted steel of a snake that dangles from her neck underneath her shirt, hidden from view. 

something she always wore for comfort, too…that little snake necklace she found beside toni that day of the river…

“thought you would’ve thrown it out or something. it was my brother, jason’s…” cheryl swallows the lump that quickly rises in her throat at the mention of her brother, and toni suddenly smiles before she chuckles and nods slowly.

“i remember him…how is he?” she asks fondly. cheryl’s heart clenches, and she can’t bring herself to look toni in the eyes as she fiddles with her hands and shakes her head, the words stuck in her throat for a few moments before they finally come out. 

“he died that day of the explosion, actually.” she whispers.

she hears the sound of the cutlery hitting the table and looks up to see toni staring at her with tears in her eyes, her whole body frozen in shock as her bottom lip trembles.

“shit…cheryl, i-.”

“it’s not your fault, toni.” cheryl says immediately. toni lets out a shaky breath, and an almost uncomfortable silence falls over them before toni suddenly reaches forward. cheryl’s heart races, and toni’s hand hovers over hers on the table, slowly lowering inch by inch, and the closer she gets, the closer they both begin to feel that buzz ripping through their bones, growing stronger and stronger as the table shakes and toni’s hand begins to shine while cheryl’s gets shrouded in darkness-

toni sighs and quickly pulls her hand back, looking up at cheryl apologetically, and cheryl simply smiles, her mind trying to understand why.

why can’t they touch?

“i don’t get why we can’t touch.” toni says, echoing her thoughts once again, but cheryl shakes her head quickly and looks up at her with a smile.

she’s sick of pondering over things they have no answers to…she’d rather learn more about the girl before her.

“let’s not focus on what we can’t explain and focus on what we can. i…i’d like to know more about you, toni.” cheryl says softly. toni immediately seems to stiffen, and cheryl realizes she may have made a mistake as toni’s expression turns stony as she chews on a piece of bacon for a few moments before she shrugs.

“what do you wanna know?” she asks cautiously. cheryl completely blanks, her mind fried as to what to even ask, and she just says the first thing that comes to her mind.

“pop tate told me you’re from the southside?” she says somewhat slowly, and immediate regret floods her again when toni’s expression turns impossibly more angry as she scoffs and sips her milkshake. 

“yeah. that a problem?” she deadpans once she’s done. 

“what? no, i…not with you, not at all-.” cheryl starts, but toni’s scoffing once again, fists clenched on top of the table as she glares up at cheryl.

“what is that supposed to mean?” she says defensively. cheryl’s heart is pounding, her fingers aching to reach out and grip toni’s hand for reasons she can’t explain, but she’s terrified of what’s gonna happen if she does, if the entire goddamn diner will explode-

“no, nothing! i just know the southside is a ghost town now-.”

“yeah, no thanks to all the northsiders practically hunting us down and lynching us or driving us out of town. you saw how those guys attacked me!” toni interrupts, clenching her jaw as cheryl watches her hand slightly shine with white light that she quickly squeezes shut to hide. cheryl hesitates, swallowing thickly and trying to find the words to say without insulting the pink haired girl before her, but toni’s practically shaking, and cheryl doesn’t want to lie to her…

“it’s a hard thing to ignore, toni. the serpents, everyone blames them for the attack-.” cheryl starts once again, and once again, toni is interrupting.

“oh, right, and i’m guessing you’re one of them!” she growls, her hand shining brighter as cheryl reaches out to touch her hand without thinking of the consequences, but toni pulls her hand back before they even get close. 

god, cheryl doesn’t want to tell her that part of her does, because her father has done nothing but shit on the southside for ten years along with the rest of the town, and all the evidence points towards the southside being responsible, if they weren’t…who the hell else was? but more than that...god, more than that, cheryl wants to admit that she blames no one more than she blames herself, but she knows she'll start crying and she'll break down and she doesn't want to break down, not in front of toni-

“your silence is palpable.” toni says simply. cheryl sighs, licks her lips before she manages to get out just one word.

“toni…” she croaks out, tears welling in her eyes at just the look of disappointment and sadness in toni’s eyes right now…

“you know what, this was a mistake. thanks for the food, but i’m gonna head out.” toni whispers, pushing herself up from the table before she’s sliding out of the booth quickly. cheryl’s frozen in shock for a few moments, watching as toni pulls her hoodie up and makes her way to the front door, and again, cheryl’s reaching for her hand without thinking of the consequences, but toni’s already passed her by the time her body finally moves.

“wait, please, don’t go, toni!” she cries out, but toni’s already at the door, ignoring her completely as she pushes it open and makes her way out without a backwards glance while cheryl watches her go with the tears welling in her eyes finally spilling over. 

“dammit!”


	3. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hallo! here is chapter three! I want to again, thank Britney (@mylittlefaith on twitter) for all her help in this fic, she's basically a co-author at this point and I can't thank her enough for helping me so much with this fic so please, give her just as much praise!
> 
> hope you guys like this one, it's a pretty long chapter! let me know what you think and you can also find me on twitter at @endofdaysforme!

for the first time in ten years, toni begins to scavenge the northside and greendale for food and money for not just the other southsiders, but herself as well.

she doesn’t go back to pops, doesn’t dare even step foot in the northside for fear of running into cheryl or those other northsiders again. there’s still this residual anger resting inside her over cheryl’s accusations, and part of her feels stupid for ever feeling, however fleeting it was, that maybe cheryl would be different from all the others.

she’d only known her for what, an hour? she was stupid to think for a second that cheryl wouldn’t blame toni and the rest of the southside for what happened on the fourth of july. 

it just makes toni more determined than ever to find out what really happened that day ten years ago, but it’s hard for her to dig for any information when she’s too busy trying to keep those that remained on the southside fed and sheltered…and she has enough going on with these strange…god, are they powers? abilities? what the hell does she even call them?

_ugh, this is way too much for me to handle right now…_

meanwhile, on the northside of town, cheryl blossom spends hours covering up the dark bags under her eyes with the most expensive foundation and concealer money can buy, because every night for the last three weeks, she’s been sneaking out of her bedroom by midnight to make her way to pop’s, and every night for the last three weeks, she and pop tate have been disappointed by the lack of pink hair making an appearance. from midnight to six in the morning, cheryl sits in the corner booth and waits, and yet…nothing.

her father has been avoiding her since that night he practically attacked her, and luckily for her, clifford was too intoxicated to even remember her disappearing act the next day, but her mother has been as consistent with her verbal abuse as always, so spending as much time out of the house has become a need more than a want for her during this hellacious summer vacation.

she just wants to find toni again. she’s tried using her…whatever she did to get to toni before, but nothing seems to work. she can’t explain it, but there’s something about that girl that keeps her heart racing and her mind spinning…something about her that draws cheryl in, and she wants, more than anything, to just get to _know_ her. but toni’s pretty much avoiding the northside at all costs now, and cheryl can’t really blame her.

cheryl wishes she could go back in time and tell toni something different, tell her that she didn’t believe _toni_ was responsible for the attacks, but perhaps that’s the reason why toni was so upset in the first place, because she was _part_ of the southside, and if cheryl blames them then she blames toni, too. 

she lets out a sigh and runs her fingers through her hair as she continues dawdling in her art book, her pencil almost subconsciously drawing the outline of a heart shaped face with full lips and wide doe eyes, and it’s such a welcome distraction from what’s to come, from what’s happening in a few days’ time-

“cheryl?” 

she jumps, heart racing at the sound of her name and the soft tap of a knock on her door, and she swallows down her fear and lets out a quiet ‘come in’, watching apprehensively as the door opens-

and her father walks in.

cheryl can’t help the way her entire body seems to tense up, the way her heart begins to pound faster and sweat begins to build on her brow as her father smiles softly at her and makes his way into her room, closing the door shut behind him as he does.

“cheryl, as you know…thursday will bring around the fourth of july, and we have something special planned to mourn, but also celebrate the lives lost ten years ago…and we’re hoping that despite your grief over your brother, you’ll present a united front with us at sweet water river on the day.” he says as he slowly makes his way to her until he’s sitting down on the edge of her bed and looking at her sternly. 

cheryl hasn’t made an appearance to the fourth of july celebrations in _years_, unable to face the guilt and grief from losing jason, and the particular guilt and grief forced upon her by the man standing before her right now…

cheryl tries her best not to clench her jaw or seeth in anger as she shakes her head once.

“daddy, you know i don’t like going-.”

“i know, sweetheart, but just this once, for me and your mother…can you make an appearance?” clifford says with an all too tense smile and through slightly clenched teeth as he reaches out and takes cheryl’s hand into his own-

_she’s no longer in her bedroom._

_cheryl blinks wildly, eyes glancing around the trees and empty clearing she now stands in as she licks her lips and tries her best not to panic._

_did she teleport again?_

_“penelope! penelope, i’m sorry!”_

_cheryl’s eyes begin to take in the black clouds of smoke surrounding her, begin to take in the flash of red and blue lights and the police car a few feet behind two officers, gripping the biceps of none other than clifford blossom, who is handcuffed and chained up, feet to hands, staring with nothing but grief and anguish at something a few feet ahead of him-_

_“PENELOPE!”_

_cheryl’s eyes move now, to the image far to her right…the image of penelope blossom crying at a gravestone, a gravestone that has tears welling in cheryl’s eyes the second she sees the name on it-_

_“jason…” she whispers, watching as clifford continues screaming his wife’s name in grief before she steps back-_

_and cheryl sees herself at seven years of age, kneeling on the dirt in front of her brother’s grave with her head in her hands as she sobs for the brother she’s lost…_

_is this a memory? because this is how she remembers jason’s funeral happening, but…but clifford was by their side, not in handcuffs, chained like a criminal in an orange jumpsuit and watching them from afar as they mourned the loss of his son…why has he been arrested? what’s going on?_

“cheryl?”

she gasps, eyes fluttering open to reveal she’s still sitting on her bed, in her room, with clifford sitting opposite her, his hand no longer clasped in hers as he watches her with concern.

“is everything okay?” he asks, reaching out to touch her again, and cheryl flinches and grips her art book to stop him with a shaky smile and a nod.

“y-yeah. everything’s fine. i’ll…i’ll be there, daddy, i just…e-excuse me, i have to go…” 

and with that, cheryl jumps up and practically runs to the door, not even caring that she’s wearing a simple black skirt and t-shirt or that she’s barely got any makeup on.

her stomach is turning for reasons she can’t explain, her heart and head is pounding and right now, she just wants to get as far away from her father as possible. 

—

toni finds herself once again tugging on the red strings of her hoodie, or well, _cheryl’s _hoodie as she stares up at the ceiling and tries her best to simply breathe. she can hear the clutter around her of everyone gathered on the stage where she’s laying down, eating the food she managed to scavenge from greendale earlier tonight, and as her stomach grumbles and she reaches down to rest a palm over it, cheryl’s words reverberate in her mind.

_“thought you would’ve thrown it out or something. it was my brother, jason’s…”_

toni frowns and slowly sits up, her head spinning slightly from starvation and dehydration as she reaches for the collar of the hoodie to pull it up and over her head. as soon as it’s off, she checks the tag at the collar, flipping it over and under, looking for some sign that-

there.

in black marker, on the inside of the tag.

the initials **‘J.B’ ** with a line through it, and right underneath it…

the initials ** ‘C.B.’ **

toni finds herself laughing before she can stop it.

“she neglected to tell me she practically stole it from you, jason…well i’ll be damned.” toni breathes, scoffing in disbelief and smiling despite herself as her fingers brush over the two little letters crammed beneath jason’s initials affectionately…all this time and she never checked the tag…

he died today ten years ago, and as much as toni wishes she could go to the cemetery and pay her respects to him, she knows she can’t…it’ll be overcrowded with people mourning their own loved ones lost, and frankly, toni doesn’t want to come across her father’s desecrated grave, god, does it hurt to see-

“toni! we need some help over here!” 

toni jumps up at the sound of byrdie’s voice, her stomach dropping as she makes her way through the small crowd gathered around the stage of the whyte wyrm eating dinner towards the entrance of the dilapidated bar, shoving her hoodie back over her body as she does. byrdie and one of the other older serpents, watcher, are holding a thrashing hog eye between them, the veteran serpent growling and hissing and trying to pry away from their grip as toni comes to a stop in front of them in shock. 

“what the hell happened?” she cries out as byrdie grunts and stumbles back when hog eye growls and shoves her.

“i don’t know, i think he took something!” watcher yells, his hands gripping at hog eye’s shirt as his mouth begins to foam. toni spins around, sees the kids huddled up to their parents, watching hog eye with nothing but fear, and toni hesitates before she exhales shakily and nods once.

“get him outside, he’s scaring the kids!” watcher grunts as he grips hog eye’s arms and drags him back outside towards the entrance. toni follows quickly after them, her heart pounding so fast against her chest, she’s scared it’s about to burst out as hog eye makes this almost animalistic sound of anger when watcher throws him outside.

“hog eye?! hey, hog eye, look at me! come on, it’s me, it’s toni!” she reaches out to grip the lapels of hog eye’s serpent jacket, but the man’s eyes are glazed over like he’s not even in there anymore, his body shaking as his nails dig into toni’s shoulder’s harshly.

“toni!” byrdie rushes toward as hog eye pratically pins toni to the ground, snapping his jaws and tightening his grip on her all while toni pushes against him by the neck with a cry of pain.

“get inside, protect the others!” she screams to byrdie and watcher, grunting with the effort of holding hog eye back, and she sees them hesitate before they run inside, a sigh of relief escaping her before the reality of her situation hits her again.

she shoves hog eye back, but the guy is almost superhumanly strong, and toni feels genuine fear flood her that this guy, this man she’s known since she was a child, is about to kill her-

“toni?!”

oh god, toni’s never been more _thankful_ to hear her voice-

“hey, get the hell off her!” 

the weight on top of her suddenly shifts, and toni immediately scrambles and pushes herself up onto her elbows to see none other than-

“cheryl? how did you get-.”

“same way as before. i…i think i felt you…” cheryl croaks out, looking at her only briefly before her eyes flick back to hog eye, who is writhing on the floor and slowly pushing himself back up. cheryl extends a hand out to help her out, and toni reaches out to grab it, but that buzz floods her body and her hand glows white as soon as it gets too close to cheryl’s, the other girl’s clouded in darkness as she pulls back and looks down at toni with a gasp.

“i…”

“it’s fine, i got it.” toni mumbles, her brain catching up with her and remembering why she’s been avoiding the northside for three weeks: because of the girl before her. she pushes herself up as cheryl looks down at the guy with wide eyes filled with concern.

“what’s wrong with him?” she whispers, as hog eye slowly gets back up, shuffling his feet on the ground, almost like he’s a zombie from all those horror movies…

“i…i don’t know.” toni whispers back. cheryl swallows thickly, her hand reaching down to grip toni’s in fear before she stops short, and toni sighs and looks up at her, finds all her stupid anger from the last few weeks just _dissipating_ at the sight of her bright brown eyes before-

cheryl suddenly stumbles back as a blurred figure rushes into her, and toni blinks in shock once at the sight of cheryl pinned to the wall, pushing back hog eye with a scream of surprise as the man snaps his jaw right at her neck-

the daggers seem to just form out of nowhere, toni’s hands shining white before they form into the white knives, which she clutches in her hand tightly with a cry of anguish.

“hog eye, stop! don’t make me do this!” she screams, but cheryl’s arms are starting to buckle and hog eye’s teeth are getting closer and closer to her alabaster neck-

toni sinks the daggers into hog eye’s back, tears welling in her eyes when she hears him whine in pain before he’s letting go of cheryl and collapsing onto his knees in pain. the daggers stay shining bright white, stuck into his shoulder blades as he falls onto his front and writhes in agony while cheryl quickly steps behind toni with a whimper. 

“are you okay?” toni asks her worriedly. cheryl nods, squeaks out a ‘yes’ as toni turns to face hog eye once more, watching as the daggers begin to fade and disintegrate…watching in shock, body shielding cheryl’s as hog eye eventually whines before his whole body just…goes still.

quiet falls over the both of them, cheryl’s breath hitting the back of toni’s neck and causing a shiver to run up her spine with every exhale as it slowly dawns on her that hog eye isn’t moving or breathing.

“hog eye?” toni breathes, stepping a little closer to him, noticing that he’s not moving, he’s…he’s not moving-

“toni…” cheryl whispers, her voice trembling, her hand reaching out to touch toni, desperate to comfort her even though she knows she can’t make contact with her…

“oh my god…oh my god, i killed him, i-.”

“he was going to kill us, it was self defense, toni!” cheryl says immediately, her body almost itching to touch the girl in front of her as the door to their left suddenly opens and a middle aged woman walks out, eyes wide and filled with panic before they land on hog eye, dead on the floor.

“oh god…” she whispers, stumbling back as toni looks up at her with tears in her eyes.

“b-byrdie, h-he…i w-was-.”

“shh, it’s okay, kid.” byrdie murmurs immediately, hands reaching out to grip toni and pull her into a deep, tight hug, one that has toni crying into her chest and has cheryl watching them almost longingly, wishing that she could do the same for the pink haired girl who just saved her life. 

cheryl sees toni gasp, her eyes fluttering closed and her hands suddenly shining bright white only briefly from where her hands are touching the small of byrdie’s back before it fades and she jumps back suddenly, looking at byrdie with wide, doe eyes filled with panic and confusion-

“we’ll take care of this, toni. go for a walk, try and clear your mind. can you go with her, red?” byrdie asks cheryl, watching her only slightly apprehensively as she simply nods numbly and tries to reach out to grab toni’s hand before she’s sighing in frustration and simply calling out her name.

“toni? come on, let’s go for a walk.” 

toni finally tears her eyes away from byrdie and turns to look at cheryl with tears falling down her cheeks before she nods, and cheryl is the one to lead them away from the bar, turning the corner of the street and making her way down it while apprehensively checking over her shoulder as toni continues to tremble beside her. 

cheryl can’t help but stare at her longingly, a sigh escaping her as she shakes her head.

“i’m sorry, toni, i wish i could comfort you-.”

“it’s fine, i…cheryl, i don’t…i don’t understand-.” toni stutters out, her eyes still wide and shining with unshed tears as she shakes almost violently from panic and fear, and cheryl comes to a stop beside her with her entire body yearning to just pull toni into a hug, but she can’t, and _god_ is it frustrating…

“toni, he was going to kill us, okay? it’s not your fault…” cheryl whispers, watching as toni lets out a shaky breath before she shakes her head again.

“no, i…god, not that, cheryl, well, yes, that, but also, i…when i hugged byrdie, i saw something.” toni whispers back, her tears finally spilling over as cheryl looks at her in confusion.

“what did you see?” cheryl asks softly. toni swallows thickly, licks her lips and simply nods once before she takes just a step closer to cheryl.

“it’s like i was in a d-different place. it was the bar, but it was all done up and there was music playing and serpents everywhere and…and i was there, on the stage as the leader. we were all okay, we weren’t starving, there was a full goddamn christmas dinner on one of the tables…it was like how it used to be when i was a kid.” toni says almost wistfully, this look in her eyes that has cheryl smiling despite herself, because toni looks as peaceful as cheryl’s ever seen her, like all the stress is gone…this small smile playing on her lips…

“you think you saw the past?” cheryl asks softly. toni’s smile fades as she shakes her head almost immediately.

“it can’t have been…i was the age i am now and i was standing on the stage, smiling.” she says hoarsely. cheryl immediately thinks back to the strange vision she had when she touched clifford…the orange jumpsuit, the way he was screaming her mother’s name…

“the future, maybe?” she breathes out, not even noticing how toni scoffs as she sinks back against the wall behind them and closes her eyes.

“how, cheryl? there’s no future where that happens, not anymore.” toni says sadly, looking up at her with an equally sad smile as cheryl frowns before she walks towards toni and sinks against the wall beside her.

“i saw something too.” she finally croaks out after a few moments of silence, her eyes fluttering closed as toni turns her head to look at her in confusion.

“what do you mean?” cheryl hesitates for just a moment before she lets out a shaky sigh and turns to look at toni anxiously.

“a couple days ago, my dad came into my room, and when he touched my hand, it was like…i don’t know, i was suddenly somewhere else. and i thought i was seeing the past, but things were different from that memory, so it can’t have been the past…” she trails off, her mind calling back to what she saw in that…was it a memory? or a vision of some sort-

“what did you see?” toni asks softly. cheryl once again hesitates before she looks to toni once more.

“my father in handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit with officers by his side…screaming and apologizing to me and my mother while we stood by jason’s grave.” cheryl says in a low voice. toni’s eyes widen, shock and confusion written all over her face as she pushes herself up off the wall with a shaky sigh. 

“what do you think it means?” 

“i don’t know. i don’t know what any of this means…” cheryl licks her lips, also pushes herself up off the wall and turns to face toni, watching the pink haired girl anxiously as toni bites down on her bottom lip and looks up at her with tears in her eyes, the pain in them so evident that cheryl’s heart honestly breaks at the sight.

“i killed hog eye…” she whispers, her tears spilling over, and cheryl can’t help but step closer, her hand reaching out before she stops short and watches toni sadly. 

“i…i want to hug you. or just…i don’t know, touch you in some way to give you some form of comfort, because this isn’t your fault, toni, but i don’t know how close we can get without everything going to shit.” cheryl says with a sad chuckle, watching as toni also takes a step closer, wide doe eyes filled with so much sadness, but this glimmer of hope…

“maybe we can try it?” toni says hoarsely. cheryl swallows down the lump of panic that rises in her throat before she nods and shifts her feet closer, and toni reaches a hand out, prompting cheryl to shake her head as she slowly lifts her left hand.

“stay still…close your eyes.” she whispers. toni purses her lips, but freezes, both their eyes fluttering closed, both of their chests heaving as their hearts race wildly with each inch closer that cheryl gets.

and toni can’t help herself, finds her left hand reaching out to grab cheryl’s right as the redhead’s left hand inches closer and closer to her cheek, and that buzzing sensation that toni’s become all too familiar within whenever cheryl is nearby begins to flood her, both their bodies vibrating as toni’s hands begin to shine, and cheryl’s hands begin to get shrouded in darkness, toni’s left hand and cheryl’s right shining brighter and darker the closer they get to-

cheryl’s not even a quarter of an _inch_ away from making contact with toni’s cheek when that familiar feeling of something hooking around both their waists grips them, pulling them apart from each other violently. this time, toni feels her feet lift off the ground, but somehow manages to stop herself from falling to the floor, only flails for a couple of seconds before she’s stumbling slightly, but still somehow managing to stay upright as her boots skid across the asphalt of the road behind her.

cheryl, meanwhile, stumbles back into the wall they were just leaning against a minute ago, her back harshly making contact and causing her to hiss in pain before she doubles over with a groan, gripping her knees and panting for air before she eventually sighs. 

“i guess that answers that.” she breathes. toni steadies her footing properly and looks up at her with a soft, but slightly sad smile.

“it was nice, though. i can’t explain it, but even though we didn’t touch, it felt…nice.” she says lamely, her cheeks flushing before she can stop them as cheryl bites down on her bottom lip to hide a smile.

“yeah…it was nice.” 

it’s quiet for a few moments before toni lets out a shaky sigh and licks her lips, that sadness returning in her eyes as she looks at cheryl anxiously.

“i’m sorry hog eye attacked you, are you sure you’re okay?” she asks hollowly, stepping closer as cheryl pushes herself off the wall with a nod.

“yeah, i’m okay. are you?” cheryl asks softly. toni swallows loudly once again, tears pricking her eyes and causing her to blink rapidly as cheryl watches her with nothing but sadness.

“i killed him, cheryl…” she whispers, scuffing her boot against the ground and shoving her hands into the pockets of the hoodie she’s wearing.

cheryl’s hoodie…

“toni, he wasn’t…i don’t know, acting normal. he was on something, and he was attacking me and god only knows what would’ve happened if he had hurt me. i’d probably be dead instead. you…you saved my life.” cheryl manages to croak out, trying her best to smile as toni suddenly chuckles lowly, her head slowly lifting to meet cheryl’s eyes with her own.

“guess it’s payback for you saving mine ten years ago today.”

silence immediately washes over them, cheryl inhaling sharply as it hits them both, then…that they’re here, together, ten years after first meeting. ten years after the incident…ten years after everything fell apart for the both of them. 

“how…how was your day?” toni asks softly but cautiously, letting out a long, loud breath as cheryl smiles at her sadly.

“depressing. how was yours?” she asks back hoarsely. toni purses her lips and nods slowly.

“about the same.” she croaks out. cheryl hesitates for only a moment, heart pounding against her chest and her words of sadness and grief over everything that happened today ready to almost burst out of her…

“maybe…we can talk about it? i’d like to talk about it…with a friend. maybe talking about everything that’s happened today with a friend will help us both.” cheryl whispers.

and oh, how her heart leaps happily when toni smiles and nods once without hesitation.

“of course, cheryl. whatever you need.” 

and so, cheryl talks. she and toni continue moving through the abandoned streets of the southside, something cheryl wouldn’t dare do on her own, but with toni by her side she feels safe…safe enough to talk about how her father had practically forced her to attend the fourth of july celebration this year, how she had to stand by with a grieving smile on her face to appease him while everyone around them approached them with words of condolences for their dead son/brother. even feels safe enough to talk about how her parents have forced her to feel responsible for the explosion killing jason ten years ago…something that has toni immediately seething in anger as she shakes her head furiously in disagreement. 

“it’s not your fault, cheryl…it’s no one’s fault but whoever caused the explosion in the first place.” 

that prompts cheryl to stare at her with intrigue, and also prompts her to ask a question that causes her nothing but panic, scared to upset toni once again, but she has to ask…

“toni, who do you think did it if not…if not someone from the southside?” 

and then toni tells her. 

she tells her about how she’s positive the serpents aren’t responsible, because her father…her father was their leader. her father was the infamous tobias topaz, the man everyone has blamed for ten years for the explosion, and the man toni believes wholeheartedly is innocent.

“he didn’t do it, cheryl. and i know you can sit there and tell me that of course i wouldn’t believe my father is capable of something like that, but my father…he was a good man. he didn’t do it.”

it’s quiet for a few more moments, cheryl unsure of what to say before toni fills up the quiet for her.

“my dad’s gone…which makes me leader by default. and i swore i’d do everything i could to protect the serpents that remain. they have no homes, no food, no shelter except for this bar. and now hog eye’s turning into some kind of zombie, attacking me and you, i…i have to find out where the drugs are coming in from. the southside’s been riddled with this crap for too long, i have to put an end to it.” toni says passionately, pursing her lips as she looks up at cheryl with nothing but determination. 

and cheryl once again, reaches out to touch toni before she remembers that she can’t, a sigh of frustration escaping her before she smiles sadly at toni and gives her a firm nod.

“okay…if that’s what you feel like you need to do. but toni…please be careful. whatever’s going on between us with these powers, and this connection that we have, i’d…i’d hate to lose it. i’d hate to lose _you._ you’re kind of the only person i feel connected to, the only person i feel like understands me, so just…be careful, okay?” she manages to croak out, the truth just spilling out of here before she can really stop it.

and toni stares at her in slight shock for a few moments, eyes blinking rapidly before cheryl watches a slight blush form on her cheeks under the lights of the street lamp beside them.

“y-yeah, cheryl. i will, i promise.” 

—

the weeks go by.

slowly, toni begins to feel herself returning back to normal.

it’s hard, though, for her to move past what happened. byrdie and watcher had taken care of hog eye’s body, had promised toni that it was unlikely anyone would care that he was gone considering the police never cared when someone from the southside was reported missing, and that everyone who cared for hog eye was in the bar and knew what went down when it happened.

but toni still killed him. toni’s still responsible for someone else losing their life, and every time she thinks about it, she ends up choking on bile, nothing in her stomach for her to even throw up if she wanted to. 

she feels sick to her stomach, is gripped by so much guilt, but more than anything, is overcome with anger.

because hog eye was high on something, and toni’s hell bent on finding out who sold to him. she knows the southside is still riddled with drugs, and as much as she’s tried to keep those who either dealed or took them out of the whyte wyrm to keep the few kids there safe, toni feels like she should’ve known they wouldn’t be able to keep them out forever…

she has to find the dealer. she has to find whoever sold hog eye this bad batch of drugs that caused him to completely lose himself. she needs to find out how this all happened, and the only way she’s gonna do that is if she scours the southside for any suspicious behavior to find the person she’s looking for. the person who sold hog eye the drugs…

but it’s been days, and she’s found nothing. it’s hard to get the attention of a dealer when you don’t have any money to give them, and she’s five foot tall and tiny, she doesn’t really fair high in the intimidation factor.

she collapses down onto the stage of the whyte wyrm, watching with tears in her eyes as the serpents around her grumble in complaint about their hunger…she’s been so focused on finding hog eye’s dealer the last couple of days, she’s sent a few older serpents on a food hunt instead, but they don’t have her skills in thieving, unable to find anything for them-

“don’t beat yourself up, kid. there’s always days we’ll go hungry.” byrdie says suddenly behind her, the woman falling down beside her with a tired sigh as toni looks up at her and pulls her hoodie up over her head with a sniff to keep her tears at bay.

“i’m failing everyone...i killed hog eye-.”

“no you’re not. you’re a kid, toni. you’re doing your best, we all see that…and hog eye was on something, there was nothing else you could've done...” byrdie murmurs softly. toni wipes away at the tears that fall down her cheeks quickly before she licks her lips and feels byrdie wrap an arm around her shoulders tightly.

“you know…i have high hopes, still.” byrdie says suddenly. toni sniffs again and turns to look at her in confusion.

“what do you mean?” she croaks out. byrdie chuckles and gives her shoulders a squeeze. 

“i have high hopes for us. for _you._ that one day, we’ll all get out of this…we can make the wyrm what it used to be. a home for us serpents, and you…you’ll lead us into the new age. and we won’t be hungry and we won’t be scared anymore. i still see that happening, toni. so don’t give up.”

her words…they reverberate in toni’s mind, and toni’s eyes widen, her mind returning to the vision she saw when she hugged byrdie…

them at the wyrm, with a full meal at the table and all the serpents fed and happy, toni at the helm, leader once more, a smile on all their faces…

she needs a payphone. she needs to talk to cheryl, desperately.

“this might seem like a crazy ask, but…have you got a quarter?”

meanwhile, on the northside, cheryl is laying on her bed, staring up at her ceiling, teeth gnawing on her bottom lip as she tries to pull apart the vision she saw a couple weeks back when she touched her father.

he had been in an orange jumpsuit…a prison jumpsuit. that much was obvious. her mother was at jason’s grave and so was a younger version of herself…wasn’t a memory, but the look in her father’s eyes in that vision, god…he was so terrified. so afraid, so full of _fear…_

cheryl can’t begin to explain anything that’s going on with her and toni, why they’ve suddenly got these strange abilities, why they’re seeing weird visions and are shining with white light and black darkness, but whatever it is, cheryl’s just glad that she has toni by her side for all of it. they’ve spent the last few weeks since that night bonding, talking with each other and helping each other as best as they can.

it’s been a couple of days since she last saw the girl with the faded pink hair, and cheryl can’t help but miss her, but they’ve both got their own things going on right now. cheryl knows toni wants to try and figure out what happened to hog eye, which cheryl doesn’t blame her for at all. but part of her is beyond worried for her, because she knows whatever this involves is going to be dangerous…

but cheryl knows she’s got her own demons to slay.

she licks her lips before she jumps up off her bed, heart racing as she makes her way towards her father’s study. when she arrives, she knocks on the door, takes a deep breath in, and waits to hear her father’s voice-

“come in.”

there.

she slowly pushes the door open, faking a smile as her father looks up from his desk with a fake smile of his own as he pushes away from his desk and places his pen onto the papers in front of him with a nod at her.

“ah, cheryl…is everything alright?” he asks firmly, watching as cheryl makes her way forward, playing with the hem of her shirt nervously as she does.

“everything’s fine, daddy. i just…thought i’d ask how you are.” cheryl says sheepishly, making her way closer to her father. she has no idea how she’s going to make physical contact with him to get another vision of…whatever it is she saw.

“not a question you ask often, cheryl.” clifford asks with a chuckle, but cheryl can see the suspicion in his eyes as he stands from his desk and makes his way around it to get closer to her as well. cheryl licks her lips before she shakes her head, her fear starting to get the better of her, because if her father gets suspicious of her right now…

“i’m sorry, i didn’t mean to disturb you-.” she starts, but clifford, in a showcase of pretending to be a caring father, something he does often to lull cheryl into a false sense of security, shakes his head and comes closer to her, raising his hand to wave off her statement. 

“that’s okay.” he says simply. cheryl swallows thickly, and clifford’s about to turn around and make his way back to his desk when cheryl feels a rush of bravery run through her because she _needs_ to know if she can get that vision again-

“can…can i ask you a question, daddy?” she blurts out, stopping him in his tracks, and the fear that grips her when she hears her father huff in frustration causes that brief rush of bravery to disappear completely in the blink of an eye.

“what is it, dear? i do have a lot of work to do…” he says sternly, but with a hint to his tone that has cheryl immediately cowering, her shoulders tensing and her head quickly swiveling side to side to dismiss herself.

“right, of course…uh, never mind, i’ll leave you to work now.” she says resolutely, watching as her father offers her another smile faker than the hair atop his head as-

“thank you, sweetheart. we’ll talk at dinner.” 

and just like that, he reaches over, grips her shoulder just a little too harshly and presses a kiss to her forehead.

cheryl can’t help the way she inhales sharply the second he makes contact, her heart thumping in her throat almost, but one thing is for sure as her father pulls away from her.

no vision.

cheryl does her best to hide her disappointment as her father turns away from her and makes his way back to his desk. she sees herself out, a frustrated sigh escaping her despite herself-

“cheryl?”

she almost jumps out of her skin at the sound of penelope blossom’s voice behind her, a loud gasp escaping her and her heart racing as she turns to see her mother making her way down the hallway towards her.

“why are you disturbing your father during his work hours?” her mother scolds, eyebrows furrowed as she comes to a stop in front of cheryl and quickly reaches out to grip her biceps, squeezing way too hard in her chastisement.

“i wasn’t, i j-just-.”

“don’t do that again! now go get ready for dinner.” penelope says stiffly, shaking her head before she squeezes her tightly once more and lets her go, and cheryl barely registers the way her arms are throbbing, so used to this by now that the only thing she focuses on is that again…

no vision.

she hides her sigh of disappointment as her mother walks away, teeth gnawing on her bottom lip as she contemplates her next move and rubs her sore arms subconsciously.

maybe that weird vision thing had been a one off? fuck, she needs to talk to toni…

toni had told her she didn’t have a phone, so cheryl had given toni her number and had told her to call whenever she could, but it’s left cheryl with no other way to contact her…unless…

cheryl hesitates for just a moment before she rushes to her room, slamming the door shut behind her as she does. she knows she’s cutting it short, dinner is soon and her parents will probably kill her for disappearing, but right now, she doesn’t care.

she just wants to see toni. 

“come on, stupid powers, take me to her.” cheryl murmurs, closing her eyes and trying to focus on toni, on her faded pink hair and the way that red hoodie hugs her body…her short stature, but that breathing smile, and those wide doe eyes…

her phone rings, and cheryl jumps slightly before she sighs and reaches into her pocket for it, pulling it out and staring at the unknown number in surprise before she answers.

“hello?”

“cheryl…hey.”

the second cheryl hears her voice, she feels her heart begin to race, and a smile spreads over her face before words she’d never say come tumbling out of her all too quickly.

“hey…i was just thinking about you.”

“you were?” toni says with a chuckle of surprise, and cheryl feels her cheeks flush as she bites back a groan of embarrassment and simply sighs.

“everything okay?” she hears toni breathe in shakily before-

“yeah, i…i guess i just wanted to hear your voice.”

oh.

cheryl’s cheeks grow impossibly warmer, her smile turning impossibly brighter as she falls down onto her bed with a barely contained giggle of excitement. 

toni wanted to hear her voice…

“everything okay on your end?” cheryl asks. toni lets out a long sigh before she answers, and cheryl has her mind made up before she even says anything.

“not exactly…think you can come to the southside for a visit?” 

—

“so you think you saw byrdie’s dreams or something?” cheryl asks, a frown of confusion on her face as she pushes herself on the swing beside toni, who simply sways back and forth gently with a heavy sigh.

“yeah, or like…what she _hopes_ will happen? i don’t know, it’s confusing, but when she told me she still believes that future is possible, and she had all this hope in her eyes…i dunno, it reminded me of that vision.” toni murmurs, scuffing her feet in the sand of the swings in the playground their hanging out in. 

it’s an abandoned one on the southside, and cheryl’s honestly surprised the swings haven’t broken apart yet from the pressure of being used after so long as she looks at toni with a warm smile.

“maybe that’s why your hands shine with light, toni. because you bring hope.” she says softly, a blush forming on her cheeks as toni bows her head almost shyly, and cheryl almost wants to confess that toni gives her hope…that toni makes her feel safe and warm in a way she’s never truly felt before when the pink haired girl frowns and looks up at her.

“then why do yours get shrouded in darkness?” she asks. cheryl’s heart falls, a bitter laugh escaping her as she lets out a shaky sigh and shrugs knowingly.

“maybe because i bring the opposite. sadness…despair.” she says with a heavy heart, part of her wanting nothing more than to sink into the ground right now when toni suddenly jumps up from the swing she’s sitting on and suddenly moves to stand behind cheryl, her hands gripping the chains of the swing cheryl’s sitting on and resting a few centimeters above cheryl’s own hands gripping the chains.

their hands are immediately shrouded in black smoke and white light, the energy buzzing through them as cheryl comes to a standstill and turns slightly to look at her in surprise.

“hey…i don’t believe that. not for a second. you don’t bring me anything but happiness.” toni says firmly. 

…oh.

cheryl feels her heart clench a little, a smile instantly lighting up her face, unbeknownst to the way toni very visibly inhales sharply and suppresses a shudder at the sight, her own heart pounding wildly, because, just as she’s thought from day one…cheryl is _beautiful._

“i…thank you, toni.” cheryl whispers. toni simply smiles back, moves her hands just an inch lower and watches the light of their hands grow brighter and darker before she licks her lips.

“besides, i think the opposite of hope is fear, isn’t it? so…maybe that vision you had of your dad is what he _fears will_ happen?” toni says with a frown, stepping back slightly as cheryl sways back and forth gently to keep their distance and stop them from flying apart as cheryl also frowns and looks behind her again at toni in surprise. 

“why would he fear being arrested?” she asks, both of them aware of the energy buzzing between them growing stronger and stronger the closer they get to each other and the closer their hands get to meeting from where they’re wrapped around the chains. 

“i don’t know…” toni whispers back, sighing as she finally decides to stop tempting fate and steps back completely from the swing, letting go of the chains and watching as both their hands stop shining. cheryl turns to look at her sadly before she pushes herself up off the swing and turns to face toni with a shaky sigh, her heart hurting at the very idea of what she’s about to say, but deep down, she knows it to be true. 

“he’s hiding something, toni. he’s been in his office more and more for the last few weeks, and my mother is more agitated than ever. i don’t know…i feel like they’re keeping something from me.” she says, crossing her arms over her chest with a sigh of frustration that has toni sighing before she shrugs, the answer obvious to her. 

“maybe the answers are in his office?” she says simply. cheryl blinks once before she scoffs and throws her arms up in the air in exasperation.

“even if they are, there’s no way i can get in! he’s got that whole office locked as if it’s a panic room.” she says in disbelief. toni chuckles before she simply shrugs.

“well, i mean, you can teleport, why not just…you know, poof in there?” she says with a grin, and cheryl rolls her eyes and sticks her tongue out at her.

“it’s not like i have control over it! i don’t know, it just…when i teleport, it just brings me back to you…it always brings me to you.” cheryl says softly, a smile playing on her lips that has toni clenching her fists to stop herself from reaching out to touch her, and she clears her throat and focuses instead on helping, thinks back to her many times robbing the people of greendale before she nods at cheryl.

“you got some bobby pins at home?” she asks. cheryl blinks once in surprise.

“uh…yeah?”

“then you can use them. you gotta bend one at a ninety degree angle, then kinda pull the wires apart of another one…i’m sure you can find a youtube tutorial or something. pick the lock, get inside, but try not to cause any kind of mess. don’t touch anything, but try and get into his desk to find papers or something. take photos of what you find and make sure you put everything back exactly as you saw it. oh, and make sure you lock everything back up so you don’t raise suspicion!”

toni says it all so simply, and cheryl is staring at her, completely dumbfounded before she finds herself fighting back a laugh, a smirk easily taking over her face.

“you break into a lot of places, toni?” she teases. toni’s eyes widen before her cheeks flush and she clears her throat.

“uhh…self survival and what not, shut up.” she grumbles. cheryl laughs before she can stop herself, and god, toni’s smile is so wide at the sight, it almost knocks cheryl for six for a moment before she takes a deep breath in and decides she should help toni out with her own current problem.

“are you having any luck finding the person responsible for the drugs?” she asks. toni’s shoulders slump almost immediately as she sighs.

“not quite.” she mumbles. cheryl chews on her bottom lip before she licks them and nods.

“there’s always a higher chain of command. with daddy’s business, the maple syrup business…he’s the head honcho, you know? everyone reports back to him. it would make sense if it works for the same for, well…drug dealing. there must be someone at the top, _that’s_ the person you have to find.” cheryl says quickly with a firm nod. 

toni stares at her in surprise for a couple of seconds before she’s letting out a loud laugh of her own and staring at the redhead with a look cheryl’s never received before in her life: a look of nothing but what looks like pure adoration.

and boy, is it a look that completely rocks cheryl blossom to her core.

“looks like i’m not the only badass, blossom.” 

—

the final click.

after almost an hour of trying to get this fucking lock open: the final click.

cheryl inhales sharply, her back immediately tensing as she glances up quickly to make sure her she hasn’t been heard, but it’s three in the morning and she can hear her father snoring down the hallway, and she lets out a sigh of relief before she grips the doorknob and twists it.

it opens, and cheryl grins widely, pushing the door open slowly and wincing when it creaks slightly before she slides between the gap and tries to calm her nerves. 

she wishes toni was here beside her right now, but seeing as she’s not, she tries instead to draw from her energy, a smile lighting up her face and a rush of bravery hitting her as she makes her way over to her father’s desk. a wave of disappointment hits her when she sees the lack of papers on top of it, but she squares her shoulders and sinks into her father’s desk chair before she reaches for the drawers on the side. all three of them are locked, and she growls under her breath before placing her two bobby pins into the lock and getting to work on the first drawer.

it doesn’t take as long as the front door did, only ten minutes, and once it pops open, cheryl sees a whole stack of paperwork that has her looking at it with wide eyes. she reaches for her phone in the pocket of her jeans and turns on her flashlight, placing the papers on top of the desk with a racing heart. she shuffles through them, eyes scanning for anything that catches her eye before she bites down on her bottom lip with hesitation.

she can’t stay here all night scanning through these goddamn papers…

“fuck it.” she mutters, opening the camera on her phone and quickly taking photos of every piece of paper she finds. she only has a limited time to search all three drawers, she wasn’t expecting that fucking door to take so long to open…

it’s four in the morning by the time cheryl is done, and she follows toni’s advice and makes sure everything is locked once more before she creeps her way back to her room. she had given toni one of her old phones in order to keep in contact with her instead of buying her a new one like she planned, knowing the girl’s reluctance to accept any kind of charity, and she prays toni is awake as she opens her text messages and can’t help but smile at the last one toni sent her just last night.

**toni [23:42]** _good luck, cher. teleport my way if you get in trouble, i’ll keep you safe. xo_

she bites down on her bottom lip before she quickly types out a message.

**you [04:04]** _are you awake?_

cheryl sinks down into her bed with a heavy sigh, her eyes itching with fatigue as she rubs them before running her fingers through her hair before her phone vibrates. she grabs it in surprise and looks down, a smile once again lighting her face when she sees a reply from toni.

**toni [04:06]** _kinda haven’t slept all night, i’ve been worried about you. are you okay?_

cheryl’s heart starts racing, that energetic buzz filling her up that has her gasping before she squeezes her eyes shut and, instead of being scared of it…embraces it.

that buzz grows stronger and stronger, her whole body vibrating in a similar way to the past two times she’s found herself teleporting to toni, but something’s blocking it, stopping her from stepping through that barrier, from pushing through it to get to toni, like a wall between her and the way through…

_think, cheryl, think, how did you do it the last two times?_

both times cheryl teleported to toni, the pink haired girl had been in the middle of being attacked…does cheryl only have the ability to get to her when her life is in danger?

cheryl growls in frustration, grabs a pair of jeans off the floor and quickly shimmies into them and buttons them up. 

she’ll just have to do this the old fashioned way. 

she hesitates before grabbing her jacket off the floor. it might be the end of july, but the bruises on her arms from her mother gripping her the other day are something cheryl doesn’t want toni to see…

she flips the hoodie on the back of the jacket over her head before, completely out of nowhere, she feels a rush of cold wind and-

“holy shit!” 

cheryl jumps slightly, opens her eyes in shock as the smell of rosewater and cherries is replaced by old wood and a stench that has her wrinkling her nose, and she sees toni sprawled out on a dirty old mattress, the girl’s eyes wide as she sits up wildly before she quickly glances around despite them being on an upper level from the rest of the bar cheryl presumes they’re in, considering she can see a bunch of other people below her sprawled on equally dirty mattresses…

the other serpents. this is where they all stay…toni included. 

“hey! you got control of your powers!” toni whispers, grinning up at her like she isn’t lying in poverty surrounded by those in equal need of help as cheryl smiles at her sadly and tries her goddamn best not to cry at the sight of it all. 

this is toni’s normal. and as much as it breaks cheryl’s heart, she doesn’t want toni to see that it does. 

“uh, not exactly, i…i just kind of thought of you and here i am.” cheryl breathes in a low voice, not wanting to wake up anyone downstairs.

“always brings you to me, huh?” toni whispers, beaming up at her like a child on christmas day as cheryl can’t help but smile down at her just the same.

“always.” cheryl whispers back.

toni chuckles, runs her fingers through her hair before she’s suddenly smirking and looking cheryl up and down, and cheryl pulls back the hoodie over her head and frowns as she slowly puts two and two together.

the first time she teleported to toni, she had dived under the covers of jason’s bed, blanketed herself from view of her father…the second time, she’d been wearing this jacket, had the hoodie over her hair to protect it from the humidity when she’d felt that pull from toni…

the hoodie…like darkness cloaking her from sight, like the dark clouds that shroud her when she teleports-

“hey, come on, let’s go outside so we don’t disturb anyone. follow me.” toni mumbles suddenly, pulling her out of her thoughts as she jumps up and moves to the corner of the small balcony they’re on, suddenly stepping down on what cheryl assumes is a ladder as she follows suit. she grips the railing before slowly stepping onto the first rung, and she manages to make her way down without making too much noise. 

she drops down and follows toni towards the entrance of the bar, tiptoeing slowly across the floors as toni opens the door and slides through the gap. she holds the door open for her, and as soon as they’re out in the hot summer air, cheryl looks up at the sunrise barely peeking over the horizon with a smile.

“god, i always forget how beautiful this time of the day is.” she croaks out. toni grins and nods in agreement, staring at her for a few moments before she begins walking down the street, and cheryl follows after her, wishing for the eight hundredth time since she first laid eyes on toni all those weeks ago that she could touch her…maybe even hold her hand as they strolled down the sidewalk…

“so…you never answered my question. are you okay?” toni asks softly, turning to look at her with a frown of concern.

“yeah, i’m okay. didn’t get caught, but it took me way too long to get that goddamn door open. i just took photos of everything i found, i figured we could go through it together? see if anything jumps out for either of us?” cheryl says with a smile. toni looks at her in surprise before she chews on her bottom lip as if she’s hiding a smile.

“uh…yeah. yeah, of course. you, uh…might need to send them to this old thing, ‘cause i don’t think i can look over your shoulder without being sent to timbuktu.” she teases, holding up the old phone cheryl gave her.

and cheryl grins before she shrugs and nods towards the playground that’s a few streets away, the one they were hanging out at a few nights ago. 

“you were behind me on the swing and we didn’t get blown away. why not tempt fate once more?” she teases back. toni blinks once before she’s letting out a shaky breath and scoffing lightly in disbelief.

“a dangerous line to tread on, but i wouldn’t tread on it with anyone else. after you, miss blossom.” she says with a grin, sidestepping and sweeping her arm to let cheryl go first, and the red haired girl makes a show of flipping her hair before strutting her way towards the playground, the playful energy between them making her almost giddy with excitement. 

as soon as they reach the playground, toni’s climbing the jungle gym and moving around the platform beside a pole that’s about five feet off the ground. she lays flat on her stomach on it, beckons cheryl forward with a grunt and a grin as the girl chuckles and comes pretty much face to face with toni, stepping closer and closer as the girl rests her elbows on the platform and rests her chin in her hands with a tired smile. 

and god, she looks so beautiful beneath the rays of the rising sun, cheryl finds herself almost mesmerized by her, and she can’t resist.

cheryl sucks in a breath before she reaches a hand up slowly, causing toni to drop her hands slightly with a gasp, her fingers coming closer and closer to toni’s cheek, and of course, her hand gets shrouded in darkness more and more, a white light shining off toni’s cheek as well the closer she gets to it-

“i…really hate this whole ‘no touching’ thing.” cheryl grumbles, dropping her hand grumpily and watching as toni sighs mournfully with a nod.

“yeah, me too.” she murmurs with a frown of almost anger and disappointment. they stare at each other with sad smiles for a few moments before cheryl licks her lips and pulls her phone out of the pocket of her jeans. she opens up the photos and quickly turns so her back is to toni, and she suppresses a shudder at the feeling of toni’s breath hitting the back of her neck as the pink haired girl leans in close enough to be able to see cheryl’s phone, but not close enough to trigger their strange powers. 

“alright, let’s have a look at these papers.”

the sun has well and truly risen over the horizon by the time cheryl and toni have looked through about ten photos, ten photos of just boring business concerning clifford and the maple syrup business, and it isn’t until the eleventh that they finally find something worth everything cheryl’s been through tonight. 

“hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, zoom in closer!” toni says suddenly into her ear, prompting cheryl to jump slightly in surprise before she does as she’s told. as soon as her hand drops, however, toni’s reaching out and dragging the page up so she can see it, and cheryl hears her inhale sharply in her ear before toni pulls back with a very loud and very confused-

“what the fuck?” 

cheryl looks back at the page in confusion, sees the name ‘penny peabody’ written at the top of the page, reads it carefully before she frowns and looks at toni, who is spinning the ring on her finger over and over again with an anxious look on her face.

“toni? who’s penny peabody? it says here she had some ‘personal business’ with my father-.”

“she…she was a serpent back in the day. i don’t remember much about her ‘cause i was so young, but she acted as a lawyer for any serpents that got into a bind with arrests and court cases. she’s…she’s the one who gave me this the day of my father’s funeral…it’s his ring.” toni says firmly, holding her hand up where a ring with a green snake encased in the glass is shining on her finger. 

cheryl’s frozen in complete and utter shock.

no…that can’t be possible, it _can’t_ be-

“she disappeared a few weeks after the fourth of july incident, we…we all just assumed she was killed or left town…” toni murmurs, brows furrowed in thought, but all cheryl can think is-

“wait, she…she was a _serpent?_ but my father _hates_ the serpents, why would he be working _with_ one?” cheryl exclaims, zooming in on the photo once more and trying to find more on this ‘penny peabody’, but it’s all blacked out, like the file’s been redacted-

“i…i don’t know, but cheryl…penny wasn’t exactly known for being the best person to do business with. she was a witch of a woman, byrdie’s told me the stories, and as soon as penny gave me this ring, she grabbed me and dragged me the hell away from her. if your father is doing business with her…” toni says in a low voice, the look on her face filled with apprehension and what looks like, well…fear.

“what, toni?” cheryl whispers in confusion. toni looks up at her anxiously, and cheryl’s so surprised to see tears in her eyes, she’s frozen in shock for a good few seconds at the sight of it.

“i…god, cheryl, whatever it is, it’s bound to be something shady. she’s not a good person…it’s bound to be something really, really bad. and with that vision you had of him in a prison jumpsuit with officers behind him…” toni says it gently, but not harshly or unkindly, and cheryl feels her heart completely _fall._

because the only really, really bad things worth putting someone in jail for cheryl can think of is the drugs going around the southside, making hog eye nothing but a zombie…the only really, really bad thing cheryl can think about is…

_no…no, no, that’s impossible, no fucking way-_

“are…are you saying _my father_ has something to do with, what, the drugs going around the southside? or are you trying to say maybe he had something to do with the explosion on the fourth of july?” cheryl says through slightly barred teeth, this anger seeping through her at the accusation coming from this girl right now, and toni’s eyes widen-

but she hesitates. she hesitates and chews on her bottom lip before she sighs and says something that has cheryl’s anger growing tenfold.

“cheryl, i…i don’t know, maybe? there’s something going on here-.”

“toni, i understand you’re frustrated that your father has been blamed for _years_ for something you don’t think he did, but putting the blame on _my_ father instead is a low blow! my brother _died_ in that explosion, or did you forget that?!” cheryl yells angrily, pushing herself away from toni, wanting to get as much distance between them right now as possible because how _dare_ she accuse her father of such a terrible thing-

_haven’t you been accusing **hers** of the same for the last ten years, cheryl?_

cheryl ignores that little voice in her head as toni stands up and jumps down the five feet from the platform, landing with a grunt beside cheryl and reaching for her desperately-

“cheryl, that’s not what i’m doing! i just-.” toni starts, but cheryl pulls away and jumps back, shaking her head viciously in anger and grief and disbelief that toni could do this to her, could accuse her father for causing that explosion, for _killing her brother-_

“you know what? i don’t need this! i never should’ve even come to you!” cheryl cries out, that energy buzzing through her once again, and again, cheryl embraces it, hoping it just gets her as far away from toni right now as possible instead of bringing her to toni like it always does as she pulls the hoodie of her jacket up over her head.

“cheryl, wait! can we just talk-.” toni starts, but right before her very eyes, cheryl’s entire body is surrounded by a cloud of black smoke, and in the blink of an eye-

she’s gone.

“cheryl?!” toni cries out, glancing around the playground anxiously before it truly sinks in that this time, instead of teleporting _to_ her…

cheryl’s teleported _away_ from her. 

and that realization hurts in a way that toni’s never felt before. 

“fucking…fuck.”


	4. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: mild abuse and mentions of sexual assault
> 
> hallo, here's another chapter! you might notice a lil shout out to a certain show in this chapter, if you spot it, gold star for you! 
> 
> trigger warnings are there for a reason guys, please read cautiously. your mental health comes first as always.
> 
> this is technically the penultimate chapter, as the next one will be the final big chapter, followed after that by an epilogue! im sorry this fic was so short but I kinda like the idea of doing short fics like this...what do you guys think?
> 
> anyway, hope you like this one, thank you so much to Britany (@mylittlefaith on twitter) for all her help! you're a goddamn STAR!
> 
> leave a comment letting me know what you think or you can find me on twitter at @endofdaysforme! bye now!

“cheryl…this is like the tenth message i’ve left…please, cher, i really want us to talk about this, i…i want you to give me a chance to apologize in person because i refuse to do it over some dumb voicemail, so just…call me back, please? or…at least let me know you’re okay.”

toni hangs up, a heavy sigh escaping her as she blinks back tears and stares down at her phone longingly, wishing more than anything that she could jump through it and somehow reach cheryl that way instead.

because it’s been a week now since that morning when cheryl teleported away from her, and cheryl hasn’t answered any of her calls or replied to any of her texts at all.

it had gotten to a point about three days ago where toni had been so worried, she had risked going to pop’s at one in the morning to ask him if he’d seen her, had luckily not run into any northsiders, and despite her protests, he’d made her a sandwich and had told her that cheryl had been at the diner with her friends earlier in the evening and that she had looked upset and distracted the whole night. 

toni’s at least glad the redhead is safe, but the fact that she’s avoiding her hurts because, well…toni misses her. she misses her _a lot._ but she understands why cheryl’s upset because fuck, toni’s dealt with people accusing her father of being responsible for the fourth of july incident for the last ten years…has watched his name be slandered, his grave desecrated, his gang, his family be ripped apart, and toni basically just told cheryl to her face that her father was responsible for not only all of that, but for the death of so many other innocent people, including her own brother.

she doesn't know what to believe about clifford and his association with penny peabody, but it can't mean anything good, regardless if it has to do with the Fourth of July or not. but still, what toni said was insensitive, even if she didn't _exactly_ outright blame him...

add that to the fact that she’s getting absolutely nowhere with finding out what’s going on with the recent influx in drugs on the southside because every dealer she’s come across has turned her away because she didn’t have any money, and toni’s starting to feel like everything’s just…falling apart. 

she stares up at the ceiling for a long time, teeth gnawing on her bottom lip, trying to figure out a way to get to cheryl, to try and fix all of this-

“hey, kid! get down here a sec!”

toni sighs at the sound of byrdie’s voice and slowly pushes herself up off the mattress she’s lying on. 

“yeah?” she calls out over the railing.

“managed to find a generous man willing to part with some summer barbecue food he cooked for a party a few days ago! some sausages, bit of roast chicken and pork…come eat!” 

toni blinks once in surprise before she’s practically barreling down the ladder, her stomach growling and her mouth salivating at the idea of some food.

as soon as she’s at the bottom, byrdie grins and wraps an arm around her shoulders, giving them a squeeze as everyone rushes forward with cheers of happiness while watcher and leon set up the bags of food they have on the table with grins on their faces, opening the lids off some containers of food as everyone clamors around them.

toni blinks back tears of joy and nods at byrdie, pushing her forward to get some food before byrdie’s shaking her head and pushing _her_ forward instead.

“you first, kid.” 

“byrdie-.”

“not up for negotiation! go on!” the older woman says immediately with a roll of her eyes, and toni sighs before she waits right at the back of the line, makes sure everyone has enough food for themselves before she piles up what’s left on a napkin for herself. 

she takes a seat on the stage, smiles and laughs at the kids joyfully eating before she and byrdie sit down at the helm and dig into their food.

"was this generous guy a northsider?" toni asks once she swallows her food. birdie chuckles and simply nods once.

"he was. but he was on the southside." toni looks up at her in complete and utter shock.

"what? why?"

"giving to the ones in need...not everyone on the northside is a monster, toni." birdie says with a sad smile, prompting toni's shoulders to slump as she sighs and nods, thoughts of red hair dancing before her eyes-

“speaking of northsiders...haven’t seen that red haired girl around in a while. you two have a falling out?” byrdie murmurs to her quietly after a few moments. toni’s heart sinks, and she chews on her food for a while before she simply shrugs.

“uhh…kind of. it’s a long story.” she mumbles. byrdie hums thoughtfully before she bumps into toni’s shoulder with her own.

“wanna talk about it?” she asks. toni sighs and simply gives her a sad smile, and decides, instead of talking about cheryl…to talk about something else.

“not really. but i do wanna ask…about penny peabody.” toni asks with slight hesitation, and almost immediately, byrdie’s face falls, a look of distaste and anger taking over. 

“that _snake_ of a woman? we haven’t seen her around these parts for a long time, toni. as far as i know, she disappeared…could be dead for all we know.” byrdie grunts, playing with her food for a moment before she scoffs and takes a mouthful.

toni watches her apprehensively, tries to determine whether to prod further before she decides to do it anyway.

she needs answers. 

“what made her such a bitch, byrdie? what aren’t you telling me?” toni asks softly, fiddling slightly with the napkin in her hands as byrdie suddenly looks at her with nothing but sadness and hesitation, clearly unsure of just how much of whatever it is she's keeping from toni she should share. 

“ahhh, kid…if i tell you this, it’s gonna change things, and i don’t want-.” byrdie starts, but toni shakes her head reaches out to grip byrdie’s hand in her own.

“i’m not a child anymore, byrdie. i can take it. tell me, please…” toni pleads desperately, watching the change in emotions in byrdie’s face as she goes through them, grief, loss, sadness, hesitation, regret...and it’s quiet for a few moments before byrdie sighs and bows her head. 

“your dad was a good leader. he was truly such an amazing man, but the serpents…they were falling apart long before that accident on the fourth of july. and your father, he couldn’t think of any other way to keep us afloat than to do something, well…something not all the serpents agreed with.” byrdie says in a low voice, still avoiding meeting toni’s eyes as the pink haired girl watches her with a frown.

“what?” toni breathes. byrdie lets out a shaky sigh before she finally looks up at toni and meets her eyes.

“he had us start dealing, got us into the drug game. and sure, it brought in money and got us in a place of stability we’d never been in before, but…a lot of the serpents didn’t like it. and penny peabody only made things worse by running around, whispering into people’s ears and trying to convince them that tobias wasn’t fit enough to be leader, and that he was gonna lead us over a cliff by having us deal. and one of the people she got to was your mother, toni.” byrdie says firmly, and toni feels her heart immediately fall.

her mother…toni doesn’t remember much about her, she left when toni was very young, but what toni _does_ remember is how distraught her father had been after she left…

toni’s never thought much about her mother, she’s gone and she’s been gone and toni doesn’t want to bother even thinking about her, but now…

“fuck…” toni croaks out, blinking back tears as byrdie sighs and rubs her back comfortingly. 

“yeah…the conflict between them was already bad because your mother didn’t agree with dealing, but then penny started getting into her head, and your mother and a handful of other serpents refused to take part in any of it. and then that bitch, she got into your father’s head, too. started telling him that your mother was likely planning a revolt against him, to take leadership from him, and your father was terrified…he believed her.” 

toni stares at the woman before her in complete and utter shock.

“what?! how?! how could he believe that viper bitch over his own wife?!” toni growls, trying her best not to raise her voice around the kids as byrdie sighs and runs her fingers through her hair with another scoff.

“penny peabody…she had a way of getting into people’s brain and picking them apart little by little. it was her goddamn specialty. i don’t know what she was after, but i told your father not to listen to her, even told your mother, but…couldn’t be helped. eventually, it got so bad, your father decided to make an example of anyone who tried to go against his leadership. and the first person he chose…was your mother.” 

toni feels the entire world spin, feels her heart ache, her body begin trembling and the tears that well in her eyes almost immediately fall down her cheeks.

her mother…her own mother, his wife, this is why she left, this is why toni was raised without a mother, was left all on her own because…her father betrayed her mother, oh god-

“no…no, no, byrdie, please-.” toni whispers, this anguish gripping her as byrdie blinks back tears of her own and sets down her food to pull toni into her embrace.

“kid, i’m so sorry, i wish i wasn’t telling the truth, but your father…he kicked her out of the serpents. he exiled her and the next day, she was gone. left riverdale, left your father…left _you._ and your father, he was heartbroken. but he chose the serpents over his wife, and she did what she had to do. but…she should’ve taken you with her. gotten you the hell out of this mess so that you wouldn’t end up where you are now.” byrdie whispers sadly, pulling back and wiping the tears from toni’s cheeks gently as the younger girl sniffs and looks up at her with big doe eyes filled with sadness. 

“toni…i’m sorry.” byrdie says softly. 

and toni, despite how sad she’s feeling right now, despite how defeated and broken…has one thing and one thing only on her mind. 

“do you th-think he did it? do you think…do you think h-he caused the explosion on the fourth of july?” toni whispers. the hesitation on byrdie’s face is answer enough despite her verbal response.

“i don’t know what to tell you, toni. your mother was gone and your father was so angry, and clifford blossom wasn’t making it any better by basically revolting the whole of the northside against the southside…but to do something like that? no, I personally don’t think your father was capable of it. but with penny peabody in his ear, who knows what she turned him into.” 

at the mention of cheryl’s father, all toni can remember is the fact that cheryl is upset with her right now for accusing him of the fourth of july when the truth is…god, toni doesn’t even know what the truth is anymore…

why was penny peabody so hellbent on causing chaos within the serpents? she...she tore toni's family apart...

she feels sick.

she jumps up, hands what’s left of her food to one of the kids despite how hungry she is as byrdie watches her in shock.

“toni, i-.”

“i’m fine, byrdie, i just…need to be alone right now.” toni murmurs, and with that, she makes her way back up the ladder to her little haven of peace, where she can cry and sob and be upset as much as she wants without anyone seeing her.

—

“cheryl? come down here immediately!”

her mother’s voice is shrill, filled with nothing but anger and hatred and the immediate dread that fills cheryl’s body at the sound of it has her freezing from where she’s sitting on top of her bed, her entire body trembling before-

“CHERYL!? I SAID RIGHT NOW!” 

“fuck.” cheryl says simply, and with that, she pushes herself up off her bed and practically runs to her door, not wanting to anger her mother any further than she clearly already is.

she rushes towards the stairs, finds her mother waiting at the bottom of them and begins her descent with her heart racing in her throat.

“mother? what’s wrong-.” cheryl’s barely made it to her mother at the bottom of the stairs before the woman is reaching out to grip her arm and pull her forward with a hiss through bared teeth, cheryl unable to stop herself from stumbling down them as harsh nails dig into her pale skin and cause her to flinch immediately.

“what’s wrong is that alice cooper had quite an interesting story to tell me this afternoon when i happened upon her unfortunate presence at the jubilee today! she told me that she saw you a couple of weeks ago at the bridge that leads to the northside, _returning_ from the south!” penelope blossom all but screeches, nails digging impossibly deeper and causing tears of pain to well in cheryl’s eyes as she swallows the harsh lump in her throat and shakes her head wildly.

fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck-

“i-.”

“cheryl marjorie blossom, you better have a good explanation as to why you were seen anywhere _near_ the southside or so help me god…” penelope says in a low voice that only makes cheryl more nervous and terrified because she has no fucking idea what to say.

alice cooper must have seen her coming back from a visit with toni, this is so not fucking good-

“i…m-mother, i-.”

no explanation comes to her mind, a complete and utter blank slate where her brain should be, and really, she should have seen it coming, but she doesn’t and it shocks her.

the sharp sting of a harsh slap, followed by a second, a third, and then a fourth, right over the same spot: her right cheek.

four slaps in succession that have her crying out and trying to wrench herself out of her mother’s vice-like grip, only causing the nails around her bicep to dig in deeper as the white hot pain covers the entire right side of her face. 

tears are falling before she can stop them, a sob escaping her, and the sound of her mother scoffing almost sounds distant, too far in her static filled brain to register as she’s practically thrown over the stairs, shoved by the woman who’s supposed to care for her…

“clean yourself up and go straight to your room! and stay there until tomorrow morning! your presence isn’t wanted for dinner tonight!” her mother growls, standing over her with this almost triumphant look on her face as cheryl clutches her swollen, irritated cheek, the feeling of something wet on her fingers causing her to look down in surprise to see blood staining her pale skin.

she’s bleeding.

“if i hear anyone breathe another _word_ or sentence that involves your name or the southside ever again, cheryl, there will be hell to pay! now go!” penelope hisses, and with that, cheryl jumps up off the stairs and runs up them as fast as she can, heading straight for her room with tears running down her cheeks.

she slams the door shut behind her and collapses against it, sliding down until she’s sitting on the floor as she clutches her chest and tries her best to take in a few deep, shuddering breaths. 

her mother hasn’t hit her face in a long time, but cheryl’s not surprised she has. she was angry, very angry…angry enough for four goddamn slaps in a row.

she touches her cheek, hisses at the pain that explodes over it with just the lightest touch before she sniffs and wipes away the tears as gently as she can. 

fucking alice cooper…of course that woman would say something, she lived for spreading gossip and rumors, she worked for the damn newspaper because of it…and cheryl was being so goddamn careful, too…

she hasn’t even been to the southside in a week…not since her argument with toni.

god, toni…

cheryl hesitates, her eyes falling on her jacket on top of her dresser, and her cheek is so painful and her whole body is shaking and the truth is…cheryl misses her.

at this point, she can’t even remember what she was mad about. fuck her father, fuck her mother, fuck everything, she just needs someone to _care._

and toni...she does care. cheryl knows she does, despite their fight, toni does care...pop tate had told her yesterday that toni had come around asking about her, she risked getting found by northsiders just to check up on her and it all just makes cheryl feel even more guilty for not respond to her texts or calls...

she needs to see her.

cheryl sniffs once and jumps up, grabs her jacket and slides it on before she tries her best to focus on toni and toni only, and when that familiar buzz begins to spread throughout her body, she grabs the hood at the back of her jacket and flips it over her head, closing her eyes as she does.

she feels that rush of cold wind, hears a soft gasp and knows exactly where she is when she smells that familiar scent of musty wood.

“cheryl?”

the sound of her voice has cheryl immediately breaking down in tears, her whole body trembling and a choked out sob escaping her as she pulls back her hood and looks up through blurred vision and heartbreak to see toni jumping up from the mattress she’s lying on with a look of nothing but concern, a gasp escaping her when she finally sees cheryl’s face properly.

“t-toni-.”

“cheryl, oh my god, you’re bleeding! what happened?” toni breathes, rushing forward quickly and reaching out to touch her, barely managing to stop herself in time as cheryl’s bottom lip trembles almost violently.

“my…my m-mother, i-.” she can’t finish her sentence, can’t get the words out as toni whimpers, and cheryl can see she’s blinking back her own tears as cheryl’s shoulders slump in defeat.

“shh, i’m here…” toni whispers, reaching out once again, her hand shining the closer she gets to cheryl’s cheek, but toni doesn’t seem to care as she steps closer, desperate to touch her, to give her some form of comfort as cheryl looks up at her in despair.

she can’t even hug her…

“come on, please, please, please…” toni pleads desperately, more tears welling in her eyes as that buzz gets stronger and stronger-

“you c-can’t.” cheryl barely manages to croak out, her voice pitched so high in her anguish as toni’s tears finally spill over.

“just this once, please, please…let me touch her, please…” toni whispers under her breath, looking up at the ceiling as if she’s talking to some higher being before she closes her eyes and reaches out, but once again, that energy gets stronger and stronger the closer she gets, cheryl shrouded in darkness, toni bathed in light…

“please…” toni begs again to no one in particular, choking on a sob of her own, the despair that she can’t even hug this fucking girl gripping her as cheryl whimpers and shakes her head before looking up at her sadly. 

toni stares at cheryl helplessly, watching as the redhead continues to sob before she sniffs and wipes her tears away with a nod.

“come on, let’s go outside and get some fresh air, okay?” cheryl purses her lips and nods once with a sniff, the sight so heartbreakingly adorable that toni’s heart squeezes as she heads for the ladder and makes her way down it, cheryl following after her shortly after as they avoid the serpents that are still awake and milling about.

as soon as they’re outside, cheryl looks up at the night sky with a shaky inhale of breath, the cool air nice against her swollen and heated cheek as toni stares at her with her jaw clenched in anger at the sight of her injury.

it’s a split second decision, but toni knows it’s the right one as cheryl finally opens her bleary, bloodshot eyes to look at toni with nothing but grief in them.

“i know where we can go to clean that up…do you trust me?” toni whispers.

and despite both their pain, the smile that takes over toni’s face is enough to make cheryl smile too as she nods without hesitation.

“with my life.” she whispers back.

—

“you _stole_ hair dye?”

cheryl can’t help but giggle, wiggling her fingers as they hover over toni’s, her cheeks flushed with excitement and her injured one no longer throbbing as much as it was a couple of hours ago as toni shifts beside her and also lets out a giggle of her own. 

they’re lying on a rock by sweet water river side by side about three feet apart, their hands moving against each other and hovering over each other’s at a reasonable distance, a dim white light shining from toni’s hand and only a small cloud of darkness shrouding cheryl’s, but that buzz between them as electric as ever despite the distance. they’ve been here for hours, ever since toni brought cheryl here to clean the cut on her cheek with the current from the river, the cool water also helping with the pain before they’d ended up here on this rock, looking up at the stars and divulging in each other. cheryl spoke about her parents, and toni spoke about the recent revelations she’s had about hers.

it’s been nothing short of magical, and cheryl’s quite sure she’s never, ever felt this happy before despite the less than happy conversation they’ve had, unaware of just how much toni feels the same. 

“i got bored! and it worked, and it looked good, so, you know…why not?” toni says with a grin. cheryl laughs and shakes her head, cocking an eyebrow as she looks at toni with amusement, shifting her jacket that’s resting behind her head as she does.

“it does look good…will you steal more pink dye?” she asks. toni simply shrugs once again.

“nah…the faded effect looks cool.” she concludes. cheryl simply hums softly, decides to tempt fate and brings her hand closer to toni’s hovering above her, watching with rapt attention as their hands glow brighter when toni’s eyes suddenly widen, the smile dropping from her face as she looks past cheryl towards the river behind her.

“whoa…why’s the river doing that?” cheryl sits up quickly and spins around, her eyes landing on the sight before her in complete and utter shock.

the river is shining, the water on the surface bubbling and frothing as if it’s suddenly become a hot tub, and cheryl squints her eyes and notices…

a shining white light…and something that looks awfully like dark clouds…

that is definitely not normal.

“i don’t know, but notice the colors?” cheryl whispers, looking to toni, who narrows her eyes before she finally realizes what she’s seeing and just slumps in confusion, staring at the river with a raised eyebrow.

“huh…would you look at that.” she says simply.

the river is shining with the same colors they do…cheryl has no idea why, can’t even begin to explain it-

wait…the day of the explosion, when cheryl pulled toni out of the water, toni hadn’t been breathing, and cheryl had grabbed her hand in a panic…and she can’t remember much, but she does remember seeing that white light and that cloud of black smoke from their hands…remembers toni suddenly gasping for air, like she was brought back to life-

“hey, cheryl, do you think…do you think maybe the river gave us our powers? we were in there for a while when the explosion happened…” toni asks, causing cheryl to lick her lips as she contemplates toni’s words.

she’s right…they were underwater for a good minute and a half, cheryl can still remember how hard she struggled to get to the surface carrying toni’s dead body weight with her…but does that mean sweet water river itself has some kind of powers or magical…_thing_ like they do? is the river responsible for cheryl saving toni that day, and for the powers they have now?

“i don’t know, it’s possible. that can’t be a coincidence, though.” cheryl murmurs, pointing at the white light and black smoke as it suddenly begins to dim slowly. 

“mmm…” toni says behind her, the both of them watching in confusion as the river begins to return to normal right before their very eyes…

a mystery for another time, because right now, cheryl just wants one thing and one thing only: to enjoy toni’s company. and that starts with:

“toni?” she asks, slowly turning to face the pink haired girl as she looks at cheryl with a small smile in response, and cheryl swallows the lump in her throat before she looks down at the hoodie toni’s wearing…

her hoodie.

“why did you keep my hoodie, really?” she whispers. toni inhales sharply before her eyes suddenly drop down to cheryl’s collarbone. 

“the same reason you kept my necklace.” she says, nodding down at it with a smirk as cheryl’s hand flies up to touch the little purple colored snake with a chuckle.

“you noticed, huh?” she teases. toni simply grins and nods once.

“mhmm…maybe part of me hoped that one day, we’d meet again and i’d be able to give it back.” cheryl laughs lightly before she lets out a shaky sigh and looks back out over the river…the river where so goddamn much changed…

“i always wondered what happened to you. every day since that day…i wondered if you were okay.” cheryl croaks out, turning back to look at toni, who stares right back at her with this look cheryl’s never seen before as she reaches out and holds her hand up, palm facing cheryl, who slowly reaches a hand up as well until their palms are just hovering over each other.

“i wondered about you, too. that explosion might’ve caused all this, but you and me, cheryl…i think that’s fate.” toni says softly, watching as the white light from her hand and the black smoke from cheryl’s begin to bounce off each other…

“i really wish i could touch you.” cheryl breathes, looking up at toni with a racing heart and watching as toni swallows thickly before-

“i really wish i could touch you, too.” she whispers back. 

it’s quiet for a few moments, the both of them simply breathing each other in before cheryl finally pulls back with a heavy sigh.

“thank you. for staying with me tonight.” toni smiles and simply gives her a nod.

“you’re welcome, cheryl. and i’m sorry…about your mother.” she says sadly, her eyes falling on what cheryl has no doubt is likely the rather large bruise that’s on her cheek, causing her to sigh once again.

“it’s okay. i’m used to it by now.” she mumbles, but toni shakes her head.

“you shouldn’t have to be…” she murmurs, and cheryl watches as she chews on her bottom lip before she looks up at cheryl in despair.

“cheryl, about last week-.” she starts, but cheryl immediately waves her off dismissively. 

“water under the bridge. besides…who even knows anything anymore. maybe neither of us know our parents as well as we thought.” she says sadly, causing toni to scoff as she runs her fingers through her hair.

“truer statement has never been spoken, blossom.” she scowls. cheryl purses her lips before she looks up at the stars with an almost mournful feeling gripping her.

it’s late…she needs to head back now.

“i should head home.” she says reluctantly, jumping up and brushing the gravel from her hands onto the back of her jeans as toni follows suite, surprisingly shaking her head as she does.

“stay with me instead.” she says urgently. cheryl looks at her in shock before she sighs.

“toni…”

“please? i…i wanna know you’re somewhere safe…even if it is on the southside.” toni says quickly, stepping closer to her with a pleading look in her eyes that cheryl wishes more than anything she could appease, but…

“i wish i could, toni, but if my mother doesn’t find me in my room tomorrow morning, she’ll probably put two and two together and god only knows what the consequences will be for the both of us if she finds me here.” cheryl says with a sad smile. toni bares her teeth, an almost soft growl escaping her in anger.

“i’ll kick her ass if she lays a single finger on you again.” she hisses. cheryl can’t help but smile at her protectiveness, her hand reaching up on instinct to grab toni’s before she stops herself.

“you’re sweet…but that whole wanting me to be safe thing? goes both ways. i want you to be safe, too.” cheryl says, nodding at her. toni’s expression softens, and she sighs loudly before she purses her lips and nods.

“okay. but on one condition.” 

“what?” cheryl asks, and toni reaches for the hem of her red hoodie before she’s lifting it up over her head and holding it out to cheryl once it’s completely off.

“wear this. don’t worry, it’s recently washed, courtesy of me stealing some coins from some idiot’s wallet in greendale and using them at the laundromat. you said the hoodie of your jacket helps activate your powers? use the hoodie on that to come to me the second that bitch starts anything.” toni says firmly. cheryl looks at her in shock, stares down at the jumper that _used_ to be hers…

“toni…you said this jumper gives you comfort-.”

“it does. and now i’m hoping it’ll give you some instead.” toni says with a soft smile, and god, when she says it like that…

cheryl suppresses a giggle and reaches out to take the hoodie, hands closing around the fabric while also being careful not to make contact with toni despite how desperately she wants to, and she slowly puts the hoodie on over her head before yanking it down. it fits her perfectly now, a complete contrast to how big it used to be on her as a child and how it’s still slightly too big on toni’s tiny stature, and cheryl looks down at it with a warm smile before she’s reaching for the clasp of the necklace behind her neck.

“in that case…you should have this back.” cheryl says, holding the necklace up once it’s off and watching as toni looks at it with hesitation.

“oh, i…I don't know, cheryl, the serpents aren’t even a thing anymore-.”

“then wear it in memory of them.” cheryl says simply. toni swallows thickly, stares at the necklace as cheryl holds it up from the black choker of it, fingers just brushing over the purple steel…

“my dad gave me that necklace…” she murmurs.

“then wear it in _his_ memory. i know you’re unsure of what to believe when it comes to him, but he was still your father, and he clearly loved you, toni. besides…this was originally yours. guess i’m just returning it to its rightful owner.” cheryl says softly with a reassuring smile. toni returns it, and she finally closes her hand over the necklace and takes it from cheryl before she nods at the hoodie around cheryl’s body.

“guess i’m doing the same. although don’t think i missed jason’s initials crossed off, sweater stealer.” she teases. cheryl laughs loudly, unable to stop herself, because she remembers that day so clearly…

jason was always bigger than her, broad shouldered and stockier, and he had grown out of this hoodie so quickly, cheryl had pretty much stolen it three months after their parents bought it for him. jason had complained for so long because it was his favorite…she also remembers how he’d huffed in the back of the car when he saw she was wearing it to the fourth of july celebrations…

“it always comes back to him and that god awful day…everything in our lives, it always comes back to that day.” cheryl whispers, blinking back tears at the memory of him as toni nods solemnly in agreement.

“as much pain as that day has caused us, cheryl…there’s one good thing that came out of it.” toni says, causing cheryl to sniff once before she looks at toni in confusion.

“there is?” she asks.

and toni smiles so goddamn beautifully, cheryl finds herself staring in awe for just a moment before toni’s words truly hit her.

“of course…that’s the day i met you.” 

…oh.

cheryl stares…and stares…and stares.

and toni stares right back.

and cheryl forgets in that moment, about the boundaries placed on them, or the fact that they might get blown off the rock they’re standing on and into the river if they get any closer…she reaches out and steps closer as she does, her hand just hovering over toni’s cheek as her face gets closer and closer as well before that white light shines and the black smoke makes it’s appearance…

cheryl licks her dry lips, heart thundering as she pushes and leans in closer, and toni inhales sharply, god, they’re so close…lips inches away…

she wants this so badly...she can push through that invisible barrier between them, she has to...

the buzzing reaches paramount, and cheryl freezes about an inch away from toni’s face with a heavy sigh and a white light shining in her eyes from toni’s skin where her black cloud shrouded fingers hover.

“i…really, really wish i could touch you right now…” cheryl whispers. toni looks up at her in utter _awe_, the both of them breathing deeply before cheryl steps back and lets out an almost nervous sigh.

“i should go…goodnight, toni.” she says softly with a smile.

and it takes a moment, but toni manages to get her voice back with a clear of her throat and a squeaked out-

“goodnight, cheryl.”

cheryl’s smile grows wider for just a moment before she’s lifting the hood of toni’s- well her hoodie really- up over her head and disappearing in a cloud of black smoke, and toni stands there, dumbfounded by what’s just happened for a good thirty seconds before her eyes fall on cheryl’s jacket that’s she’s left behind…the one she was lying on.

toni picks it up off the floor, a smile lighting up her face before she lifts the jacket to her nose and inhales.

the scent of rosewater and cherries hits her, and toni groans loudly, the scent of cheryl blossom hitting her with full force for the first time with nothing but longing overtaking her before she’s kicking and punching the air with an angry huff. 

“fuck you, you fucking stupid cosmic powers that be and you’re stupid fucking cock-blocking!” she half screams before she’s walking away from sweet water river with a groan and repeated grumbles of ‘this is bullshit’ and ‘just one fucking touch’ with cheryl’s jacket clutched in her hands, unaware that sweet water river is once again shining with white light and black smoke…

unaware that cheryl blossom is in her room at the same, groaning with a similar anguish at those ‘stupid fucking cosmic powers’ before she’s curling up under her covers with her nose buried into the collar of the red hoodie she now refuses to take off, a smile on her face at the scent of old wood and what smells like watermelon chapstick…

neither of them aware, but both of them also fully aware of just what’s happening now as they both fall asleep wearing each other’s jackets, their noses buried into the collar as they fall asleep breathing in each other’s scent with a smile on their faces. 

—

“cheryl? come on, this is meant to be a party!”

“hmm?” cheryl looks up in surprise from where she’s leaning against the kitchen counter as veronica rolls her eyes at her and sips the small bottle of vodka in her hands, eyebrow cocked as she glances down at cheryl’s phone with a nod.

they’re at veronica’s place at the pembrooke, celebrating a summer vacation worth remembering with a party they’re an hour into, and truth be told…cheryl would much rather be somewhere else _with_ someone else-

“who are you texting, anyway? it feels like you’re so engrossed in your phone you’re not even with us these days! and this is a party, clearly whoever it is, they’re worth it!” veronica teases, looking to josie beside her, who nods in agreement as there’s the sound of loud cheering in the other room behind them from the football team as cheryl simply shrugs and finishes the text she’s sending toni.

**you [21:39]**  
_sorry, my friends are getting mad at me for being distracted at this dumb party…text later?_

“who’s the lucky boy? or girl…no judgement.” josie says with a grin, prompting cheryl to roll her eyes as she sets her phone down on the kitchen counter with a shrug.

“no one. now, what exactly are your plans for this big summer party of yours, miss lodge?” cheryl asks with a smirk, ignoring the way her phone vibrates loudly to not get the attention of her two friends as veronica giggles and claps her hands together with excitement. 

“how about some karaoke?! i was thinking-.”

cheryl feels her phone vibrate, and she reaches for it and glances down to see a message from toni, her heart immediately soaring at the sight of it.

**toni [21:41]**  
_that’s okay, go have fun with your friends, cher, stay safe…xo_

“what do you think, cheryl? are you down?” veronica’s voice cuts through, prompting cheryl to jump once again before she nods with no idea as to what she was even talking about. 

“uh, sure, yeah…”

“great! meet in the living room in ten!” veronica practically squeals before she’s grabbing josie’s hand and dragging her away, prompting a groan from the singer as cheryl chuckles and hesitates. she stares down at her phone before she sighs and heads out to the balcony.

veronica said ten minutes…

she hits the call button of toni’s number as she closes the door behind her, blocking out the sound of the party goers inside until it’s nothing but muffled background noise. 

“is this you having fun with your friends?” toni’s voice rings through the phone with a chuckle. cheryl grins and leans against the railing with a laugh of her own.

“you’re my friend, aren’t you?” she teases. toni laughs softly before-

“i consider you a friend, my _only_ friend, really, so…i hope you feel the same.” 

…oh. 

cheryl’s heart skips a beat before she whispers back-

“i do.”

it’s quiet for a few moments between them, the sound of toni’s breathing calming her for reasons she can’t explain before she clears her throat and licks her lips.

“how’s your night been?” she asks. toni sighs, and cheryl can hear the sound of rustling on the other end of the line.

“tiring. still trying to find the goddamn head honcho, but every time i get close to a dealer, they run off. i think they’re onto me, or at least onto someone asking questions…maybe the others here on the southside know who i am.” toni murmurs. cheryl feels panic quickly grip her at the sound of that…

toni had told her that there were others on the southside still left that had no association or affiliation with the serpents, that she had no clue where those people stayed or how they survived, but that the recent influx in drugs on the southside must mean more are dealing to get by. 

“you mean they know you’re leading the serpents that are left?” cheryl asks.

“mmm, or that i’m the former leader’s daughter…i don’t know.” toni says with a sigh. cheryl chews on her bottom lip and lets out a shaky breath, gripping her phone a little harder as she does.

“god…be careful, toni. maybe someone should be helping you with all this-.”

“no, i’m not gonna put anyone else in danger. don’t worry, cher, i’ll be okay.” toni says firmly and almost immediately, prompting the redhead to sigh before she purses her lips and nods.

“okay…if you need help, i’m a text away. just be careful, toni…i-.”

“come on, cheryl! where are youuuuuu!?” cheryl hears veronica shout out from inside the house _very loudly_, and she sighs before she shakes her head with a chuckle.

“okay, i gotta go. i’ll talk to you later?” 

“yeah, sure thing. have fun tonight, cheryl.” toni says with a soft laugh, and cheryl smiles despite herself at the sound.

“thanks…goodnight, toni.”

“night, cher.” 

cheryl stares down at her phone for a moment after hanging up with a sigh before she makes her way through the balcony doors back through to the apartment and-

“come on, cheryl! come sing!” veronica’s voice rings out through what cheryl quickly realizes is a microphone suddenly just as cheryl walks through the living room and sees veronica and josie with microphones in their hands-

“oh, wait, wait, wait-.” cheryl says quickly, backtracking before archie suddenly pops up behind her with a laugh and a light shove to push her forward. 

“nope, you agreed to it! come on!” veronica cheers drunkenly, causing cheryl to groan as the crowd around them cheers to egg her on.

“come on, girl!” 

cheryl groans again, but makes her way towards her two best friends, sighing as she comes to a stop in front of them and josie hands her a microphone. 

“yeah, now it’s a party! come on, reggie, you know what song to play!” veronica calls out, grinning as reggie mantle plugs his phone into the aux cord while everyone gathers around the living room and begins cheering them on.

“guys, seriously-.”

“nope! time to get away from that phone of yours and live a little, blossom!” josie teases, grinning as the opening chords of a song that is all too familiar to cheryl rings out loudly from the speakers-

“oh come on, _this_ song!?” cheryl groans, unable to contain her smile as veronica jumps up and down on the spot with a squeal of excitement.

“this is gonna be so good, come on!” she grips cheryl’s hand, squeezing it tightly with a giggle as cheryl rolls her eyes, but lifts her microphone up to her lips and sings the first few words along with josie and veronica.

—

toni sighs as she stares up at the stars blinking above her rapidly from her position laid out on top of the rock she and cheryl had occupied about a week ago, hands folded beneath her head, her mind on the red haired girl and the way she had smiled so vibrantly at a joke toni had told her last night when they were hanging out when suddenly…she starts humming a song that seems to pop into her head completely out of nowhere, murmuring the word softly with a smile she can’t even begin to contain.

“‘twenty five years and my life is still…trying to get up that, great big hill of hope…for a destination…’” she mumbles, tapping her feet together and squinting up at the stars with a chuckle as she swings her feet along to the imaginary beat in her mind…

“‘i realized quickly when i knew i should, that the world was made up of this brotherhood of man…for whatever that means…’” 

—

“‘and so i cry sometimes when i’m lying in bed just to get it all out, what’s in my head and i! i am feeling! a little peculiar!!!” cheryl practically belts into the microphone with a gigantic grin on her face, swaying from side to side with josie’s arm around her shoulders as all three girls stumble through the song with loud laughter.

“‘and so i wake in the morning and i step outside and i take a deep breath and i get real high! and i! scream from the top of my lungs, WHAT’S GOING ON!!?’” all three girls scream into the microphone, jumping up and down on the spot as everyone around the room cheers them on, and god, cheryl’s quite sure she’s never felt this happy before with her friends, all her worries erased from her mind, nothing but happiness exploding through her entire goddamn body-

—

“‘and i said hey, yeah, yeah! hey, yeah, yeah! i said hey! what’s going on!?’” toni sings loudly, jumping up to her feet with a giggle and spinning around on the spot, dancing to no beat in particular, this incredible euphoria rushing through her for reasons she can’t explain at all, but for some reason…she has a feeling she knows who’s responsible for it…

—

“‘and i said, hey, yeeeeah, yeeeah! hey, yeaah, yeaaaah! i said HEY! what’s going on!?’” veronica screams along with cheryl right into the microphone drunkenly, stumbling slightly into the girl before cheryl begins cooing at her softly through her laughter.

“‘oh, ooooh, oooooooh! ooooh!’” she manages to get out through the tears of laughter streaming down her face while veronica cradles her face with one of her hands and does the same, josie hugging cheryl from behind as she also sings along to the song. 

“oh, ooooh! ooooooh, ooooohhh…” 

—

“‘and i try! oh my god do i try! i try all the time! in this institution!” toni screams, punching the air with almost every word she says like a complete idiot, and god is she thankful no one else from the southside is hanging around sweet water river right now to see her being a complete fool, but fuck it, she feels _alive-_

—

“‘and i pray! oh my god, do i pray! i pray every single daaay! for a revoluuutiooooon!’” cheryl sings loudly, this feeling of playfulness and giddiness increasing tenfold all of a sudden, her head spinning slightly from the rush of it all, and god…god, she wishes toni was here right now-

—

“‘and so i cry sometimes when i’m lying in bed just to get it all out, what’s in my head and i…i am feeling…a little peculiar…’” toni pants out breathlessly, her heart clenching slightly, red hair and brown eyes in her vision as she giggles and grins widely before she’s spinning around the spot with a carefree laugh-

—

“‘and so i wake in the morning and i step outside and i take a deep breath and i get real high and i scream from the top of my lungs, WHAT’S GOING ON-AH!’” cheryl feels an arm wrap around her waist before josie’s all but tackling her to the ground, causing her to land back first with a loud laugh into the microphone as josie presses a kiss to her forehead and jumps up to continue singing while cheryl just…lays there, her mind spinning almost like _she’s_ the drunk one, and fuck…she can feel her…right beside her, she can feel toni-

—

“‘and i say, hey, yeah, yeah! hey, yeah, yeah! i said hey! what’s going on!?’” toni stumbles slightly, dizzy from all her spinning before she’s falling down to the ground back first, not painfully, but a groan escaping her nonetheless before she pauses, catches her breath, and-

“‘and i say, hey, yeah, yeah! hey, yeah, yeah! i said hey! what’s going on!?’” she sings loudly, face screwed up stupidly, punching the air before this voice…this almost angelic voice echoes in her mind right fucking beside her-

—

“‘and i say, hey, yeah, yeah…hey, yeah, yeah…i said hey…what’s going on…’” cheryl whispers, looking right beside her from her position flat on her back on the floor, where she can see the blank wall of the pembrooke living room but also…somehow…can see sweet water river…and toni…laying right beside her on the rock they were on last week, staring at her with wide eyes in shock and sweat dripping down her brow before she’s giggling and reaching out, almost like she can see cheryl as well…

—

“‘and i say hey, yeah, yeah…hey, yeah, yeah…i said hey…’” toni whispers back, her fingers brushing over the faded bruise on her cheek covered in makeup of this strange, transparent vision almost of cheryl that she can see right beside her, almost like she’s right here with her, but toni can see she’s not, can see the walls of a home and people, but god, it feels real, it feels so real…

“‘what’s going on?’” cheryl and toni both breathe at the same time, staring at each other in shock and god, so much confusion, but it feels so real, it feels…it feels like toni’s touching her…the warmth, the happiness, it’s _incredible-_

—

“cheryl!”

warm fingers grip her wrist, taking her right out of her moment with toni or whatever version of toni that was before she’s being pulled up off the ground by josie, the girl staring at her with wide eyes, but a gigantic grin on her face as veronica finishes out the song with a flourish for them. 

“we lost you there for a second! what happened, girl!?” josie says with a laugh, prompting cheryl to look behind her back to the ground where she saw toni-

nothing’s there.

a rush of disappointment and sadness floods her, but she quickly pushes it down and smiles up at her best friend before she shakes her head.

“nothing, josie…just got lost in thought, i think.” 

—

toni sighs as the vision of cheryl suddenly fades, this rush of sadness hitting her as she stares back up at the stars, and it’s not a minute later before, without prompt-

she’s tapping her feet together, humming the all too familiar tune under her breath again as she does.

—

**three days later**

toni sighs loudly, stares down at the good morning message on her phone from cheryl with a smile on her face before she shakes her head and focuses on the task at hand. 

byrdie told her yesterday that she saw some guy with dark curly hair dealing to one of the other southsiders when she was out on a scavenge hunt for food, and toni’s more determined than ever to track him down so she can get some answers.

it's been weeks and she's getting nowhere and fuck it, toni's tired. she wants to get to the bottom of this once and for all. she promised she's keep the serpents safe, and now one of them is dead, and whatever drugs are making their way through the southside, it could get to more and more serpents if she doesn't end this.

she’s done trying to trick them into thinking she’s there to buy. she’s going to get her answers the rough way now. 

she shoves her phone into the pocket of cheryl’s jacket that she’s wearing, flips the hood over her head and glances around the corner anxiously.

there’s still no one in sight, and she's been here for _hours._

she sighs and feels her phone buzz in her pocket, and despite wanting to focus on what she’s doing, she can’t help herself from reaching into her pocket to glance down at the message, her pull to cheryl too strong for her to ignore. they haven't seen each other since that weird vision that happened the other night at cheryl's party, and toni kind of wants to ask her to teleport over tonight so they can do something together-

**cheryl [14:51]**  
_what do you say to a stroll through sweet water river tonight?_

toni can’t help the wide grin that comes over her face, a soft laugh escaping her as she begins to send a message back telling cheryl that of course she wants to take that stroll through sweet water river with her, that _of course_ she wants nothing more than to spend time with cheryl, because cheryl takes up almost every second of every minute of every day of her mind-

“well, well! look whose come crawling back…”

toni’s heart sinks at the sound that echoes out to the right of her at a distance, and she shoves her phone back into her pocket and glances around the corner to see a man with dark curly hair about twenty feet away appearing from behind one of the building blocks, and for a horrible second, toni thinks he’s talking to her, but then she notices, a few feet away from the man…a kid, no older than sixteen she must be…with dirty red hair that reminds toni of the beautiful girl who owns every iota of her brain right now…

“let’s just get this over with…” the girl mutters, and the man chuckles as he comes to a stop in front of her, swaying back and forth giddily like he's having fun...

“have your knees recovered yet to be doing this again, sweet sammi?” the man says in this sickeningly sweet voice as his words process in toni’s mind slowly-

_oh, you sick fuck, i’m gonna fucking kill you…_

toni’s blood boils, fists clenched and teeth bared as the man with dark curly hair steps closer to the girl with a chuckle, this wicked look in his eyes that has toni’s heart sinking even further as the girl takes a step back with an almost knowing sigh.

“i’m not doing that again, malachai. i’ve got enough money this time-.”

“maybe i upped my prices, baby…” malachai says wickedly, stepping closer to her as she holds up a roll of money with shaking hands, his own reaching up to brush a lock of hair away from her face-

_enough!_

toni growls under her breath, her hands shining before she can stop them as the daggers form without her even intending them to, and she’s turning the corner and charging after this malachai with hurried footsteps, her voice one filled with fury when she shouts:

“get the fuck away from her!” 

malachai looks up in surprise before he’s baring his teeth and cracking his knuckles, this sadistic smile taking over. he probably thinks toni will be easy to dispose of. boy, has he got another thing fucking coming.

toni's killed before, she'll happily kill again.

the closer she gets, the more the shining white daggers in her hands begin to take form, and malachai’s smile is instantly wiped off his smug, disgusting face as he takes off the second toni gets too close, his eyes on those daggers with nothing but fear shining in his eyes. toni stumbles slightly when she reaches the girl, looks her over quickly before:

"are you okay?" she asks softly. the girl whimpers before she nods, and toni reaches out to grab her shoulder, is instantly rocked with this rush of emotions-

_the southside is clean...no litter, no debris, the grass is green, there's children running and toni can see the girl whose shoulder she's just touched is standing out on the green field with a wide smile on her face, laughter echoing out from her as another child up ahead with red hair is chased by a young man with dark hair and dark eyes..._

toni rips her hand away from the girl with a gasp, shakes her head in a daze as the girl looks at her in shock, and toni swallows the bile in the back of her throat at the vision she just saw...the vision of _hope_ this girl has for her future with whoever that guy was...

"go home...go home to your boyfriend, and don't do business with malachai again. that future is still possible. get clean, get sober, and you can still make that future with your boyfriend happen." toni croaks out, watching as the girl stares at her in complete confusion before toni realizes-

malachai is getting away.

“hey! hey!” 

toni pushes her feet into the ground as hard and as fast as she can, chasing after malachai as fast as her feet will carry her, but he's completely disappeared, and tears of frustration well in her eyes as she continues running despite not having a lead, she'll fucking tear apart the whole of the southside if she has to-

she's just turned a corner with her feet thundering on the ground when something hard connects with her face and everything turns black.


	5. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> because this episode is gonna make us cry tonight, here's something to make you smile :) last chapter might take a while guys, Christmas time is upon us and work is chewing up about 75% of my time smdh so bear with me!
> 
> enjoy! leave a comment letting me know what you think!
> 
> twitter: @endofdaysforme

when toni wakes up, the first thing she registers is the pain shooting throughout her entire head and body. 

she feels like she’s drugged almost, like her head is underwater, like she can barely focus on anything, god her head…

she groans before she can stop herself, a hand raising to touch her head, but her arms feel heavy, and something’s holding them down-

“ahh, kid…really screwed yourself over with all those questions…” 

toni blinks away the cobwebs wildly once it hits her that she’s not alone, and she tries to lift her hands once more, but it’s starting to hit her now that she’s tied down because she can’t lift them higher than an inch from where they are by her sides…

she also registers the feeling of hard wood beneath her body…a table, she’s tied down to a table-

she hears the sound of footsteps to her top left, and she strains her head, trying to look around with a groan at the stretch in her neck as dirty blonde hair enters her peripheral-

_holy shit…_

same green eyes, same look of nothing but trouble, toni would know this goddamn face from anywhere…

“penny?” toni croaks out, shock coursing through her at the sight of the woman who handed her the topaz family ring the day of her father’s funeral…

she’s here. and she’s grinning, like a fucking cheshire cat with this wicked look in her eyes that only tells toni one thing:

she’s in trouble.

“in the flesh! now…wanna tell me why you’re snooping around the southside asking questions about my dealing?” penny asks with a mocking stern look on her face, almost like she’s scolding a child, her hand coming to rest beside toni’s head as she looks down at her. toni stares up at her, still trying to blink away the cobwebs and the pain from getting knocked out by who she guesses must’ve been the woman gloating above her as penny’s words process in her mind.

_her dealing? oh fuck…oh fuck, fuck, fuck…_

she’s the head honcho. 

“you’re the one responsible? you’re the one supplying all the drugs?” toni whispers hoarsely, fists clenching from where they’re strapped to the table beneath her as she flexes and tries to bust out, but her head is so fucked right now, god…

“oh, toni…why are you getting involved, huh? i was happy to leave you alone, let you keep living your life, but now you’re interfering with my business…just like your father.” penny says mournfully, sighing loudly and dramatically as she shakes her head and suddenly taps a finger to the middle of toni’s forehead, causing the girl to wince and inch away from her.

at the mention of her father, toni bares her teeth and glares up at her, this anger boiling through her as everything that byrdie told her about this viper of a woman runs through her mind. 

this woman destroyed her father, her mother, her _family…_but toni still doesn’t know _why._

_now’s your chance to get answers, toni…you might be really fucking vulnerable, but now’s your time-_

“why did you turn him against my mother?” toni says shakily, cursing herself for how scared she sounds right now because fuck, she doesn’t want to appear weak, especially considering she’s already at penny’s mercy, she’s tied down to a fucking table…

fuck, she’s gonna be sick…

penny rolls her eyes, and the sight angers toni, because it’s like penny doesn’t even care, and she probably doesn’t, the fucking bitch-

“your father had what i wanted…i did what i had to do to bring him down. it’s all business, shortcake. nothing personal!” penny says with a shrug, a small smile on her face that just makes toni strain harder against the ties binding her, a growl of anger escaping her before she can stop it-

she tries to tap into her powers, tries to summon those goddamn daggers, but her head is still pounding, god, where’s cheryl, she needs cheryl right now-

“you ruined my life!” she hisses, blinking back tears of anguish as penny suddenly laughs and shakes her head in disagreement.

“oh, come on, your dad did that all on his own.” she says simply.

“fuck you!” toni yells, trying to push herself up off of the table to head butt her or hurt her in some way, but she barely gets an inch off the table, causing penny to laugh loudly with amusement, like this is all some fucking game despite how fucking _terrified_ and _angry_ toni is right now-

_cheryl, please hear me, or feel me, i need you!_

“harsh words! you get your mouth from your mother! she was a good girl…followed your father endlessly. and hey, maybe i whispered a little into his ear that getting the serpents into the dealing business would help us, but he decided that all on his own, toni. had nothing to do with me!” penny exclaims, lifting her hands as if absolving her of any involvement as toni tries desperately to keep reaching out to cheryl while also trying to get out of these fucking ties and also trying to process everything penny is saying, her head is so _fucked-_

“you influenced him! and for what? what did you gain out of it!?” toni cries out, glaring up at penny with nothing but hatred, and penny simply shrugs once again.

“well…someone offered me something i’ve always wanted: a gang of my own. leadership, you know? i tried to get my hands on the serpents, but they were loyal to your father to the end, even after he cast out his own damn wife.”

“because of you!” toni spits out, trying once again to summon her daggers, fuck, why isn’t it working?! 

_cheryl, please, i need you-_

“eh…potay-to, potaa-to, or whatever the saying is! i got what i wanted in the end…a gang of my own, my lovely ‘ghoulies’, and in exchange, all i had to do was help with that little explosion on the fourth of july.” penny says with a grin.

and just like that…toni stops struggling.

the wave of shock that hits her has her frozen, staring up at penny with wide eyes and her mouth almost dropped open in horror and surprise as penny continues to grin down at her.

the explosion…it was penny. from day one, all this blame thrown around, and this whole fucking time, it’s been her…

“you caused it…it was you.” toni croaks out, grief quickly gripping her that for ten years, she’s been suffering for no reason when-

“oh, no, no…no, that wasn’t me alone, kid. you wanna know the real culprit? look no further than clifford blossom.” penny says through slightly bared teeth in anger.

and once again, toni’s hit with another wave of shock, hit with another wave of pure confusion and grief and sadness, and despite her situation, despite the fact that she’s strapped down to a fucking table, all she can think about…

_oh god…oh god, cheryl…_

this is going to break her…this is going to destroy cheryl completely, her own fucking father…god, cheryl’s brother _died_ in that explosion…

_the vision cheryl saw of her father in handcuffs being arrested…it’s what he’s afraid of because of this…because he caused the explosion that killed so many innocent people…_

penny stares down at her with a slightly lopsided smile, her hand coming to rest by toni’s head again as she nods slowly.

“yeah, it’s been him all along, toni. he approached me and offered to give me leadership over the ghoulies if i helped him, so i did! and he offered to keep us afloat by helping us deal the drugs he’s been distributing for well over fifteen years now…that’s why he wanted the serpents out of the game. he caused the explosion, blamed it on the serpents, got them out of the business so now he’s at the top again! he’s a smart, smart business man, i’ll give him that.” penny says with a scoff, shaking her head as toni begins to understand what exactly is being told to her right now.

clifford blossom caused the explosion…blamed her father, caused all that friction between the north and southside to keep himself at the top of the drug dealing food chain…it’s all him, fuck…

“oh my god…”

“mmm…but you see, there’s a reason i’m telling you all this, toni. because good old clifford has been developing a new drug, very similar to one he began developing ten years ago that failed, and it’s failing again. and he plans on blaming it all on us…and i gotta protect my gang, no matter what. i won’t be blamed for his mistakes. he’s probably at that goddamn river right now, dumping all those crap batches of fizzle rocks and jingle jangle into sweetwater, that son of a bitch…” penny hisses, tapping her fingers onto the table right next to toni’s head in her anger as toni swallows the lump and panic lodged in her throat.

“hog eye…he was on the bad batch, that’s why he attacked us…he’s dead because of you!” toni croaks out, tears falling before she can stop them, and penny rolls her eyes and suddenly moves out of toni’s line of vision, her voice echoing out-

“now now, no need to get rash about it! that topaz temper…it’s gonna get you in trouble, toni. might even get you killed…just like your father.”

time seems to stop. 

toni feels her heart clench, the words falling out of her-

“n-no, he died in the explosion-.”

“oh, but he really didn’t. no, toni…_i’m_ the one that killed him. funny how a stab wound straight to the heart can be chalked up to ‘death from explosion’.” penny says with a chuckle.

toni’s chest tightens, her heart aching, her body beginning to shake as a sob builds in her throat at the realization of what penny is saying.

that her father didn’t die in the explosion…that he was killed, that _penny_ killed him-

“I’LL KILL YOU! I SWEAR TO GOD I’LL KILL YOU-.” toni’s screaming, thrashing against the ties strapping her to the table before a hand presses down on her collarbone-

and she feels the cold steel of a blade on her throat.

—

“ugh, i’m so not ready for the summer to be over.” josie groans, popping a fry into her mouth and sinking back against the booth of the table they’re sitting at in pop’s diner as cheryl plays with the strings of her hoodie with a chuckle.

“we’ve got a month left, josie, don’t go ending our time off prematurely!” she teases, despite the fact that truthfully, she wants nothing more than for the summer vacation to be over. she’s so sick of being home all the time, being able to escape from seven to five from monday to friday is a dream for her…

“i know, but this summer has gone by so quickly! it just sucks, i feel like we haven’t done anything!” josie says in frustration, sighing loudly as cheryl simply shrugs before she’s about to respond-

and this wave of panic slams into her out of nowhere. 

she grips the table, her heart clenching as josie continues talking while cheryl tries to get over the way her heart is racing and pounding. 

_what the fuck?_

cheryl can’t explain it, but she reaches into her pocket and pulls out her phone, pink hair and doe brown eyes filling her mind as she immediately begins texting toni’s number in a panic.

it’s her, cheryl _knows_ it’s her, she’s felt this panic before, both times, toni was attacked-

**you [17:41]**   
_toni, are you okay? i just felt a lot of panic out of nowhere._

“cheryl?”

cheryl’s head snaps up as josie looks at her with concern, and cheryl chews on her bottom lip before she shakes her head and types out another message.

“sorry, josie…just a friend of mine who might be in trouble…”

**you [17:42]**   
_has something happened? do you need me to come to you?_

“oh, is everything okay?” josie asks with a frown.

“uh…yeah, maybe, i…don’t know…” cheryl mumbles, watching as the messages remain unread, no bubbles popping up to let her know she’s texting her back…

something’s wrong.

another wave of panic, this one stronger than before-

“e-excuse me, josie, i…i’ll be back.” cheryl gasps out, jumping up from her seat and practically running straight for the bathroom as she taps into that energy as soon as she’s through the door that leads to the toilets.

she flips her hoodie over her head, feels the familiar wave of nausea and excitement as the black clouds flood around her, and she closes her eyes and focuses on toni-

she hears screaming, the smell of rust and blood hitting her nose as she opens her eyes and scans the room around her wildly-

she immediately steps behind a box to her right as she sees the back of a blonde head hovering over someone lying on a table, the sound of soft sobbing and quiet whimpers of terror hitting her ears-

“you’re strapped to a table and i’ve got a knife to your throat, so who’s the one in power here, pinky?!” someone yells, the blonde gripping the person on the table, and the blonde shifts slightly, causing cheryl to see-

toni, tied to the table beneath her, struggling and crying with a blade held to her throat as this blonde woman laughs loudly.

“should’ve wiped out the goddamn topaz bloodline on the fourth of july when i killed your father! that damn explosion clifford set up should’ve been set up right in the goddamn serpent campground! if you had kept your nose out of my business, shortcake, you wouldn’t be in this predicament!” the blonde hisses.

cheryl quickly covers her mouth to hide the gasp that escapes her, the words hitting her like a fucking tidal wave.

the explosion clifford set up…her father, he’s the only goddamn clifford in riverdale, he…he caused the explosion…

toni was right. 

it’s all been her father, right from the start.

_toni…toni’s in trouble-_

cheryl quickly glances around, spots a crowbar around the corner and grabs it before she’s creeping her way up behind this blonde woman, and with trembling hands as the blonde raises the hand that’s holding the blade to toni’s throat-

"time to finish what i started, topaz-."

cheryl swings.

and with a sickening crack, the blonde girl grunts and collapses in a heap to the floor, the blade in her hand falling to the ground with a clutter as toni screams before she looks up at cheryl with a whimper and tears falling down her cheeks. 

“ch-cheryl?!” toni cries out, her bottom lip trembling as cheryl drops the crowbar, her mind a blur, a haze, all these thoughts rushing through her mind before she’s reaching for the straps binding toni to the table-

their hands shine quickly, causing cheryl to jump back before she looks at toni, who suddenly closes her eyes and lets out a shaky breath, drawing in a slightly calmer one, and letting out another-

her hands shine brighter before the daggers suddenly form in them, and she’s using them to cut the ties before she sits up slowly and massages her wrists with a cry of anguish.

“hey, it’s okay! you’re safe, i’m here!” cheryl croaks out, glancing down at the blonde woman who’s knocked unconscious beside her on the floor, and toni whimpers and looks down at her as well.

“penny, she…sh-she k-killed my d-dad-.” toni whines, more thick tears streaming down her face, and cheryl wants nothing more than to hug her right now, but she can’t, and god, she’s got a million different emotions running through her brain right now…

“shh, i know…i heard everything. i got here as soon as i felt your panic…” cheryl whispers, tears welling in her eyes when toni looks up at her, teeth gnawing at her bottom lip-

“cheryl…your father-.”

“i know.” cheryl whispers again, eyes closing and tears falling as toni pushes herself up off the table and reaches out to touch her before dropping her hand to her side uselessly.

“i…she told me everything, cher…your father, he gave her the opportunity to lead some gang that distributes his drugs, and she took it…she always wanted to be a leader, that’s why she tried so hard to get my father overthrown. in exchange, penny helped him set up the explosion…he did it so he could pin it on the serpents and blame us for it so he could wipe us out and he’d be at the top of the drug game again.” toni says slowly, watching cheryl closely as the redhead breathes in deeply, trying to process everything…

her father killed jason. 

“i’m sorry, cheryl…” toni breathes out softly, sniffing once as cheryl finally opens her eyes again and looks at her sadly.

“toni, we have to stop him.” cheryl croaks out, wiping her tears and looking down at penny once more as toni sniffs and nods furiously in agreement.

“okay, y-yeah. we should c-call the cops, tell them about penny and what she told me, what we heard. and…and about your father.” toni whispers, looking back up at cheryl cautiously as she lets out a shaky breath…

and nods.

“okay…yeah, let’s do it.” 

—

“well…we just got a full confession from penny peabody that clifford blossom is responsible for the fourth of july explosion. looks like you kids were right.” 

sheriff keller runs his fingers through his hair as he comes to a stop in front of cheryl and toni, his face grim and filled with confusion and shock. they’re at the police station, where they’ve been stuck for the last hour, waiting for sheriff keller to let them go, and toni’s been watching with nothing but grief at the way cheryl’s slowly come to terms with the fact that her father has been the culprit of riverdale’s worst day in existence all along. 

all she can offer is words of comfort. all the help she can give is verbal, and she hates it. she wants to hold cheryl right now, to hug her and brush her tears away, just as badly as she _wants to be held_ as well, and god, she’s so tired of these damn powers stopping them…

“what happens now?” toni asks, standing up slowly and looking to sheriff keller as cheryl does the same with bloodshot eyes filled with sadness. 

“we have an arrest warrant for clifford blossom…we’ll be heading to the blossom estate in the next half an hour to apprehend him. sorry, kid.” sheriff keller looks to cheryl sympathetically, and the redhead simply sighs, is about to respond before-

“sheriff keller, we got a situation!” an officer yells as he rounds the corner, eyes wide and filled with panic as sheriff keller turns to face him in surprise. 

“what is it, deputy?”

“we raided sunnyside trailer park like you asked us to, and it looks like miss peabody was right: clifford blossom’s been using those abandoned trailers as a drug lab! thing is though, everything’s gone! the only things left in the trailers is the equipment, there’s no sign of any substances!” the deputy pants out, clutching his side as toni looks between them both in shock.

sunnyside trailer park…clifford bought it not long after the incident and kicked the remaining serpents out of their homes…god, all the pieces are falling together-

“dammit…he must’ve known we were coming. we need to do this now!” sheriff keller growls, about to make his way towards the door when-

“sir, one more thing!” the deputy shouts out.

“what?”

“we just got a report that, uh, well…about sweet water river, apparently…apparently the river is glowing? with white lights and black clouds-.” the deputy says in confusion, and sheriff keller holds a hand up to shut him up while cheryl and toni exchange surprised glances.

white lights and black clouds?

“i think in the grand scheme of things, deputy, some idiot’s acid trip about the river glowing pales in comparison to us shutting down a drug operation. forget the river, we need to apprehend clifford blossom before he skips town!” sheriff keller says, and before cheryl or toni can say or do anything, he’s taking off through the front door with a bunch of officers right behind him. 

it’s quiet between the both of them for a few moments as toni puts together the pieces before she’s licking her lips and looking at cheryl anxiously.

“cheryl, penny told me that clifford uses the river as a dumping ground for the bad batches of drugs he makes and that he’s been doing it for _years…_what if him dumping all of that crap into the river caused a reaction of some sort when the explosion happened? a reaction that gave us our powers that day?” toni says slowly, watching cheryl carefully as she swallows thickly and takes in toni’s words with a slow nod.

“we were submerged for a while…maybe we ingested the drugs themselves and it caused a different reaction in us? or the explosion caused something…god, this is so fucked…” cheryl whispers, running her fingers through her hair, and toni so desperately wants to reach out…

“i know, but we gotta keep our wits about us for just a little longer, cheryl. we need to get to the river and we need to stop your father.” she says softly. cheryl purses her lips before she nods and looks up at toni sadly.

“how are you holding up? god, toni, you were kidnapped and hurt-.” 

“i’m fine. right now i just wanna focus on stopping clifford.” toni says quickly, her jaw clenching to contain her anger as cheryl sighs and nods once.

“okay…then let’s head to the river, see if we can stop him.”

“should we tell someone?” toni asks anxiously, glancing around at the police officers milling about, and cheryl hesitates before she shakes her head once with a deep exhale.

“no…this is between him and us.” she says resolutely.

and the look in her eyes…well, toni isn’t about to argue with that.

“alright…then let’s do this. together.” 

—

it’s a short run to pop’s from the police station, but toni’s still clutching the stitch in her side and panting for air wildly as cheryl runs inside to apparently apologize to her friend for disappearing, something that takes her about ten seconds before she’s running back out with her car keys in her hand. 

“yeah, josie’s definitely pissed off that i made her wait over two hours but it’s okay, she’ll forgive me! let’s go!” 

they jump into a red chevrolet impala, a car so beautiful, toni has to pause for a moment to admire it before cheryl takes off straight towards sweet water river with haste, tires screeching on the floor with each sharp turn she takes. 

they’re about two miles away from the river when they see it.

shining above the sky from the river like a fucking beacon…this beam of white light and this cloud of dark smoke, and the closer they get, the more toni can feel this incredible pull towards it, almost like a magnet attracting her straight forward…

“you feel that?” cheryl says in a low voice, looking to toni anxiously as the pink haired girl purses her lips and nods. cheryl lets out a shaky breath before she steps harder on the accelerator. 

“if the river gave us our powers, and we feel this pull towards it, why does the opposite happen with you and me? how come every time we touch, we get knocked back?” toni asks in confusion, watching as cheryl sighs and shakes her head quickly.

“i don’t know, maybe we’re like…magnets that repel each other or something? i have no idea, toni, but maybe we should focus on the fact that the river looks like it’s about to explode!” she says in a panic, watching as those lights shine brighter the closer they get to the river…

as soon as they pull up on the riverbank, cheryl and toni both jump out of the car, hearts racing as they take in the sight before them.

the river is bubbling, steam rising from it and that white beam of light almost blinding, the black clouds surrounding it causing this almost thick fog that has cheryl covering her eyes as toni squints her own to look through it, to try and find-

“cheryl! across the river!” she shouts over the whirlwind noise of the river splashing and bubbling, pointing through the fog and smoke where clifford blossom is looking up at the river in horror over what he’s caused, this barrel of some sort in his hands that he drops, causing it to roll and finally splash into the depths of bubbling water-

the lights shine impossibly brighter, and toni looks at the river before her in horror.

cheryl’s right, this whole river is exploding with so much energy, she can _feel_ it in her bones…this isn’t safe, the whole town of riverdale is in trouble-

“he’s pouring more drugs into the river and it’s causing a stronger reaction! we need to stop him!” cheryl screams, looking at toni in a panic as the pink haired girl shakes her head with a scoff.

“we need to stop the river first!”

“how?!” cheryl yells in exasperation, throwing her hands up into the air as toni licks her lips and watches the way the river gets more and more violent…

it clicks.

“we need to absorb it!” cheryl says, looking at toni as the pink haired girl looks at her in surprise.

“what?! what are you talking about!?” she shouts in confusion. cheryl shakes her head and steps closer to toni in order to be heard.

“we’ve taken this energy before! if the river gave us our powers, we should be able to absorb the energy from the river, take it into ourselves! look at the lights, toni, those lights represent _us!_” cheryl says firmly, watching as toni hesitates and shakes her head.

“look at it, cheryl! what if taking all that in kills us?!” she exclaims in fear, and cheryl feels the tears well in her eyes as she smiles sadly and shrugs.

“then i guess it kills us!” toni looks at her in shock, eyes wide and filled with hesitation as cheryl lets out a shaky breath and nods.

toni can’t die…not after everything that’s happened…everything _cheryl’s father_ has done to her…

“or it at least kills me!” cheryl says firmly, and with that, she throws her keys towards toni, who catches them on instinct before she stares down at them in confusion.

“what-.”

“you get out of here! i’ll absorb it, and you get out of here and stop my father!” 

“are you insane!? no fucking way!” toni screams, throwing the keys back at cheryl, who simply lets them drop to the floor with a shake of her head and tears falling down her cheeks.

“i won’t let it kill the both of us, toni! your whole fucking life has been nothing but torture because of my father! you’ve suffered for years because of my family, i won’t let you die because of us as well!” 

toni is looking at her in such shock, almost like she’s frozen in her spot as cheryl squares her shoulders and faces the river.

she can do this…if she dies, she dies…but toni lives. toni lives, that’s all that matters to her right now, is that toni lives-

“fuck you!” 

toni’s voice echoes out loudly even over the river, and cheryl spins around to look at her in shock as toni glares at her with nothing but anger and stomps her way over to cheryl in her rage.

“toni-.”

“i’m not leaving you! and yeah, maybe your shitty father has ruined my life, but you? you’ve saved me, in more ways than one, so you don’t get to sacrifice yourself and leave me here all alone because i need you!” toni screams, all this emotion written all over her tear stricken face as she sniffs once and looks up at cheryl with this look that cheryl can’t even begin to explain, but one that has shivers rolling up her spine…

“toni-.”

“just shut up! shut up, because i’m not leaving! we’re in this together, or not at all! and if this kills us…then we die together!” toni cries, her bottom lip trembling, but a smile lighting up her face nonetheless as cheryl lets out a terrified whimper of her own and tries to force herself to stop shaking so violently.

she doesn’t want to die, god, she's so fucking scared…she's so fucking scared right now, but toni…toni is here, with her, willing to die by her side...

maybe it won't be so scary with her here with her…

“but i’m not dying! not without doing what i’ve wanted to do right from the second i laid eyes on you!” toni says suddenly, prompting cheryl to look at her in confusion before toni’s reaching for her hand-

“fuck these stupid fucking powers!” she screams loudly, the black smoke and white light surrounding their hands growing brighter and stronger and almost pulling them with extra force away from each other, but toni pushes through it with another scream-

and this time…

there’s no knock back. 

slim, warm tanned fingers slide into cheryl’s own long, pale ones, interlacing and causing this feeling cheryl’s never felt before to spread all throughout her entire body, this wild, stilted gasp of shock leaving her lips and causing this tingle to go up her spine.

it’s not just happiness. it’s not just euphoria.

it’s like…she’s touching her soulmate. this kindred spirit that seems to identify and mingle with her own, like something’s been missing her whole life and now it’s finally being reunited with its other half. 

peace.

it’s the first time she’s ever known it. 

she looks at toni, sees the way the pink haired girl is crying, knows she’s feeling the exact same thing…

like they’ve finally come home, after so long apart…

weeks upon weeks upon weeks of this moment building and now, all cheryl can think or feel is how warm toni’s hand is in her own, and how much it feels like it belongs there.

they hear a loud bang ahead of them, the both of them looking at the river in shock as suddenly, the wind picks up and water begins to spray them both, the dark clouds and white light from the river moving away from where it’s shining into the sky-

and into them.

they both stumble back from the force of it, the energy causing cheryl to scream despite herself, because it’s not painful, but it’s overwhelming, and somehow, that feels _worse._

this wave of nausea hits her, causing her to almost gag as her knees buckle, but toni’s grip on her hand tightens, and she suddenly has the strength to stay upright, but god, the energy from the river is smothering her, suffocating her, she can’t _breathe-_

she focuses on toni’s hand in her own, focuses on the fact that yes, she’s probably going to die in a couple of seconds, but who the fuck cares when she has toni topaz by her side, when she’s finally _touching_ her-

cheryl hears toni scream in anguish, manages to look over at her to see her raising her left hand, where her white, shining dagger is clutched within her grip as she raises it high above her head-

and suddenly, cheryl feels like she can breathe a little easier. she feels that suffocating feeling beginning to ebb, feels how her body begins to relax as all this white and dark energy is released into the sky from toni’s dagger, like she’s expelling the energy out of the both of them, keeping them from absorbing all of it-

another loud bang, one too close to where they are, one that has cheryl almost instinctively pulling her hoodie up as she focuses all her energy on getting her and toni out of here-

she feels that rush of cold wind before she’s suddenly laying on her back and staring up at the cloudy sky that’s filled with orange light from the setting sun, her heart beating erratically and the blood rushing to her ears…her whole body shaking-

and toni’s hand still clasped in her own.

complete stillness. cheryl turns her head slowly, her whole body drenched in water from the river, but this doped out, lazy smile slowly taking over her face as toni moans in pain beside her and squeezes her hand with a breathless pant before she finally turns to face cheryl with a frown.

“what are you smiling at? i’m pretty sure our asses were about to take a permanent vacation to heaven or hell back there! did you teleport us?” toni groans, staring up at the sky as cheryl’s grin only widens.

“i did.” she says simply. toni squeezes her hand again-

and her eyes widen. she turns her head sharply to look at cheryl again before she’s squeezing her hand once more.

“…we’re touching.” she says in a low voice.

“we’re touching.” cheryl parrots with a grin, nodding as toni suddenly sits up wildly and looks down at their intertwined hands with wide eyes filled with shock.

“oh my god…oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…” toni breathes, squeezing cheryl’s hand once again as the red haired girl slowly pushes herself up with a wince at how her body throbs with pain. she looks out at the river, sees that the lights are gone and the water is no longer bubbling…

everything is still.

“holy shit…we did it, toni.” cheryl breathes, and when toni doesn’t respond, cheryl turns to look at her to see her still staring at their intertwined hands with wide eyes.

“toni?” cheryl breathes, reaching a hand up to brush her fingers over toni’s cheek, god, something she’s been wanting to do for almost two fucking months now as toni finally looks up at her and whispers:

“we’re touching.”

and before cheryl can do anything, toni’s jumping on top of her and wrapping her arms around her, burying her face into cheryl’s neck in the warmest, most loving hug cheryl’s quite sure she’s ever received in her entire life. she’s crying for reasons she can’t explain, her arms immediately seeking refuge around toni’s much too slim frame as she buries her own face into toni’s shoulder with a whine while toni’s arms around her neck squeeze almost too tightly to breathe.

“this is real…” toni breathes, a shaky laugh escaping her as cheryl squeezes her back just as tightly. 

“do you th-think it’s temporary?” cheryl asks with a sniff, pulling back with bloodshot, puffy eyes to look at toni, who smiles and quickly wipes away cheryl’s tears with the back of her hand gently. 

“i don’t know, which gives me all the more reason to keep holding you.” she croaks out before she’s enveloping cheryl in a hug once again. cheryl’s hit with that scent of musky wood and something else that just seems so purely _toni_, that scent that clings to the hoodie she’s wearing right now that toni wore for over a decade, and despite the both of them being soaked with water, they cling to each other desperately, not wanting this moment to end-

her father.

fuck.

“toni…toni, my father, we have to stop him.” cheryl says hoarsely with urgency, pulling back to look at toni sadly that this moment is being cut short, but the pink haired girl still grips both of cheryl’s hands in her own before she’s raising them to her lips and kissing her knuckles tenderly with a warm, but determined smile.

“then let’s go stop him together.” 

—

they don’t let go of each other. not even for a second.

toni and cheryl’s hands stay interlaced the entire time they follow the trail of tire marks through the outskirts of fox forest for almost half an hour, all the way towards what looks like a warehouse on the border of riverdale and greendale. 

toni refuses to let go of the redhead, fingers constantly squeezing as they come to a stop at the warehouse and stare up at it apprehensively, cheryl’s eyes landing on the sight of her father’s car a few feet away with nothing but sadness in her eyes. 

“hey…” toni whispers, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze as cheryl exhales shakily and turns to face her anxiously.

“we’re gonna be okay. we just have to stay close…make sure he doesn’t get near us.” toni reassures her softly. cheryl licks her lips before she nods, and before toni can do anything, cheryl’s pulling her in close and hugging her, squeezing her waist tightly as toni rests her head on her shoulder with a sigh. 

“just in case he kills us.” cheryl mumbles into her ear, causing toni to blink once in surprise before she pulls back and looks at her in confusion.

“he’s your father, cheryl, he won’t kill…you…” toni slowly trails off, the realization slowly sinking in that clifford caused the explosion…

“he’s already killed one child…what’s one more to his list?” cheryl says with a heartbreaking smile that causes toni’s heart to ache terribly, and she’s pulling cheryl into her arms once more with a shake of her head and nothing but determination pounding through her.

“i won’t let him touch a hair on your head, i promise.” she whispers. unbeknownst to her, cheryl smiles widely at her words, buries her face into toni’s shoulder for just a moment to savor the fact that she’s finally touching her…two months of knowing each other, of bonding and growing close without even being able to touch and now they’re hugging, god…

“come on, let’s go end this.” toni says gently, rubbing cheryl’s back before they both pull away at the same time and nod. they both face the warehouse before they make their way forward, hands still interlaced, refusing to let go for even a moment, but still on high alert for anything as cheryl reaches an open door. 

she turns to look at toni and quickly raises a finger to her lips to warn toni to be quiet, and the pink haired girl purses her lips and nods before she’s suddenly raising her left hand that’s not clasped with cheryl’s. she closes her eyes, and cheryl can’t help but smile as, almost immediately, a white light shines and the dagger forms in toni’s hand. 

it's like everything's magnified now that they're finally making contact...

cheryl carefully slides in through the door and takes a quick peek around. she sees nothing but what looks like shipping containers and barrels she knows are full of maple syrup, because there’s hundreds of them in the barn on the blossom estate…

“cheryl?! what are you doing here!?”

cheryl jumps at the sound of her father’s voice, wincing out of instinct because raised voices can only mean something bad, especially if it’s her father’s, but before she can even turn to face him, toni’s tightening her grip on her hand and pushing her behind her small frame, raising the dagger in her hand while taking a protective stance in front of cheryl to keep her safe. 

meanwhile, clifford blossom looks up at the both of them from where he’s hunched over what looks like a briefcase, throwing papers and what looks like multicolored straws into a drum bin with a fire flaming…

“what, you think burning all the drugs, all the evidence of what you’ve done will keep you safe? the sheriff already knows what you’ve done, mr. blossom! it’s over!” toni seethes, anger written all over her face as she stares down the man before her while she simultaneously protects that very man’s daughter behind her. 

“and who the hell are you?” clifford sneers, not an ounce of worry on his face as he takes in toni with almost nothing but disdain and aloofness. 

“she’s right, father! penny peabody told sheriff keller everything! how you caused the explosion on the fourth of july ten years ago so you could place the blame on the serpents to wipe them out of the drug game! all so you could stay on top!” cheryl yells, her voice wavering and tears welling in her eyes before she can stop them as she and toni take small steps closer and closer to clifford, whose eyes widen before he bares his teeth and-

“that snake of a woman was paid a more than substantial amount to keep her mouth _shut!_” he roars, the papers in his hands trembling from his anger as toni scoffs and shakes her head at him. 

“never do business with penny peabody…that woman will turn on you faster than you can pay her not to.” she murmurs. cheryl barely hears her, however, because the reality of what her father has just said is slowly sinking in.

he’s all but admitted it at this point…he truly is responsible for what happened that day…

for ten years, she's wallowed in anguish over leaving jason behind when...when would've been just fine if it wasn't for _him..._

“you…you blamed me for _years_, told me jason was dead because of _me_ when this whole time…this whole time, _you’re_ the one who caused the explosion! jason is dead because of _you!_” cheryl screams, almost pushing past toni in her anger as the pink haired girl pushes her back gently to keep her safe.

“don’t you think i know that?! i have lived with that guilt for ten years, cheryl!” clifford shouts at her, throwing the papers into the bin before he’s stepping around it towards her, and cheryl steps back instinctively, her heart racing wildly and a whimper escaping her before she can stop it, but for the first time in her life…

someone’s there to protect her.

toni practically _growls_ in anger and raises her dagger higher, staring clifford down and god, despite her stature, she has the bravery of a goddamn lion, because she doesn’t look even remotely scared of the man before her despite everything he’s done. 

“you come a step closer and i’ll use this!” toni hisses, lifting the dagger threatening as clifford stares at with a mixture of confusion and fear. 

“you have no proof i’ve done anything wrong! it’s penny’s word against mine!” clifford says stiffly, and toni scoffs and squeezes cheryl’s hand again before she shakes her head.

“they found the trailer park full of drug lab equipment! the trailer park that _used_ to be my home! the trailer park _you_ bought and kicked us out of! you’ve made my life a living hell, hiding behind your money and anonymity while smearing my father’s name when he played no part in the explosion _you_ caused!” toni screams, her whole body trembling with anger as clifford’s eyes widen in recognition before he’s smirking widely.

“so you’re tobias topaz’s daughter…your father was nothing but a menace and a fiend and the world is better off without him! just like it will be better off without you!” clifford roars, and before toni can even blink, he’s pulling a gun out from behind his back, a flash of silver hitting her eyes-

a cloud of black smoke envelops her as strong arms wrap around her chest from behind, and in the blink of an eye and a rush of cold wind, toni’s suddenly standing on the opposite side of the room behind clifford as a gunshot rings out, those arms unwrapping from around her chest and allowing her to rush forward with a cry of anger-

she sinks the blade in her left hand right into clifford’s back, the man screaming in pain and falling forward onto his hands and knees, the white dagger stuck in his shoulder. toni steps back in shock, watching as the blood begins to seep from the wound in his back as cheryl grips her elbow and tugs her back gently.

“toni-.”

cheryl barely finishes her sentence before clifford’s baring his teeth and reaching for the gun a few feet away from him, fingers closing around the butt of the gun-

toni pulls herself out of cheryl’s grip in panic and kicks her foot out, connecting with clifford’s wrist and causing him to drop the gun with a cry of pain before toni’s landing another kick to his ribs-

he catches her foot and looks up at her in pure anger before he's pushing himself up in a flash and grabbing toni around the throat, squeezing tightly-

"let go of her, you monster!" cheryl screams, running forward with a raised fist before clifford backhands her-

and toni sees nothing but _red-_

cheryl falls to the ground with a cry of pain, and toni screams and swings her foot upwards, landing a booted foot right between clifford's legs and causing him to grunt in pain before she's swinging a fist and connecting right with his jaw.

he falls to the floor, and toni rushes forward and grips the collar of his shirt before she's landing another blow to his head, and another, and another-

and once she starts…she can’t stop.

all her pain, all her suffering for the last ten years floods her, thoughts of how everything that’s happened in her life has been because of this man…her father’s death, losing her home, living in the goddamn whyte wyrm, struggling day after day after day to feed not only herself, but everyone else who depended on her, a goddamn living hell, losing everyone she loves...all because of him-

“YOU SON-OF A-BITCH!” toni screams, her throat aching with the effort as she punches him over and over and over again, watching with no remorse as he cries out in pain and attempts to lift his hands to defend himself, tears of rage welling in her eyes before she’s feeling that energy flood her and the daggers are forming in her hands as she raises them with one final scream-

“TONI, NO!” 

cold, pale fingers wrap around her wrists, pulling her back and off clifford until she’s falling to the floor on top of something firm and solid, strong arms wrapping around her chest once more to restrain her.

“you’re not him!” cheryl’s voice sounds in her ear, the sound of her ragged breathing almost immediately causing this wave of calmness to rush through her as cheryl’s hold on her tightens.

“you’re a g-good person, toni! you’re not him!” cheryl cries, sniffling back her tears as toni blinks back her own and lets out a whimper before she can stop herself, still struggling against cheryl because she wants, no she _needs_ clifford to pay for what he's done-

“h-he…he d-deserves-.”

“to d-die? m-maybe…” cheryl croaks out, slowly pushing toni up into a sitting position and placing her legs on either side of toni, holding her in her lap with her arms still wrapped around toni’s chest. the both of them gaze down at clifford at the floor a few feet from them, the man crying in pain as blood pours from the wound in his back and all over his face from toni’s assault…god, he's not even recognizable...

“but what he d-deserves more is for what i saw when i touched him to happen. for his deepest, darkest fear to come true...to rot in prison for the rest of his life, knowing he l-lost his daughter and his wife.” cheryl says with only a slightly quavering voice, her eyes on the man before her as clifford actually manages to blink his eyes open to look at her mournfully.

“ch-cheryl…p-please…” he says hoarsely, reaching out for her, a whimper escaping him when cheryl pulls herself and toni backwards with a shake of her head. 

“it’s over, father. you’ll get what you deserve…for everyone you killed that day…including jason.” cheryl whispers.

and that’s that.

it’s quiet for a long time, the sound of cheryl and toni whimpering and clinging to each other mixed with the sounds of clifford’s moans of pain as he writhes on the floor before the sound of sirens hits their ears. 

everything after that is a blur.

sheriff keller arrives with an army of officers, who take one look at cheryl and toni holding each other and clifford on the floor rolling around in agony before they arrest the man and demand answers. cheryl and toni answer them as best as they can without telling them anything about their powers, and cheryl watches her father get loaded into the back of a police car with nothing but a mixture of despair and anguish rushing through her.

but she has toni by her side. and to her, that’s all that matters. 

they don't let go of each other for a moment, and god, is cheryl thankful for the contact. she needs it...after all this, god, does she need it...

cheryl doesn’t go home that night, isn’t willing to face whatever’s happening to her home as the police raid her father’s office for evidence, and she doesn’t really care about her mother or what’s happening with her enough to go and check on her or comfort her, not after the years of pain that woman has put her through.

so she stays with toni.

toni goes to the whyte wyrm once everything is over, gives the news to the serpents gathered there, who immediately explode in an uproar of anger at clifford, and by extension, cheryl, but toni and surprisingly, byrdie as well, defend her straight away, toni pulling the girl back to hide her from view as she had calmed the serpents down. 

“cheryl was seven when this all went down, she didn’t know! and trust me, that man has treated her like dirt for the last ten years! she has no love lost for him either!”

they had settled down with murmurs of disgruntlement, and toni had taken cheryl’s hand and lead her up to the ladder to her little escape on the balcony.

now, they’re lying side by side, hands still clasped, staring up at the ceiling and trying to come to terms with everything that’s just happened in less than twenty four hours. 

it’s been quiet for hours, but cheryl and toni have basked in it, holding each other’s hands and playing with each other’s fingers, cheryl occasionally pressing a soft kiss to toni's terribly bruised knuckles, and cheryl checks her phone to see it’s almost one in the morning when toni finally inhales sharply and squeezes her fingers tightly.

“are you okay?” she asks hoarsely, suddenly pushing herself up to look down at cheryl as the redhead licks her lips and looks up at her with a sad smile.

“surprisingly…yes. as much as it hurts, i think deep down, i’ve always known my father isn’t a good person. i’m just sorry for all the pain he’s caused you over these years, toni…” cheryl whispers, letting go of toni for just a moment to rub at her weary eyes and run her fingers through her hair. toni sighs shakily before she’s simply shaking her head.

“don’t be sorry…not your fault at all.” she murmurs softly. cheryl huffs and looks at her through her fingers with a groan, and toni chuckles before she reaches out to wrap her fingers around cheryl’s wrist.

and suddenly, cheryl feels her heart begin to race and her whole body begin to vibrate with an energy she’s never felt before when-

_she opens her eyes, looks around the place in confusion before the sight before her causes her to gasp._

_toni, screaming and fighting against a bunch of men who grip her and hold her back, screaming cheryl’s name over and over again as, right before her eyes…_

_a different version of herself is dragged away by more men, the redhead fighting against the men and reaching for toni desperately with tears streaming down her face while toni screams for her just the same._

_“LET GO OF HER! CHERYL! BABY, IT’S OKAY, I’M RIGHT HERE!”_

_“TONI, DON’T LET THEM TAKE ME!” _

_toni suddenly swings her fist with a roar, causing one of the men to let her go as she pulls out of the grasp of the others and runs straight for cheryl-_

meanwhile, right at the same time-

_toni opens her eyes, looks around her with shock before her eyes land on a sight that almost has her weeping tears of joy._

_it’s her and cheryl, the both of them sitting on a field surrounded by beautiful flowers as cheryl giggles and tries to writhe away from toni, who’s tickling her sides with a wild laugh of her own, the both of them so happy, so joyful…_

_“UNCLE! UNCLE! STOP, T-TONI!” cheryl laughs, gripping toni’s wrists with a laugh to stop her as the pink haired girl chuckles and leans down to press a kiss to cheryl’s cheek before she’s practically laying on top of her…_

_toni watches with a smile almost causing her cheeks to strain painfully as the dream toni brushes a lock of hair behind cheryl’s ear, the redhead looking up at her with the most tender look in her eyes…_

_“despite everything, toni, i…you’ve given me so much hope and love, despite my father and everything he’s done to you and i…i can never thank you enough.” cheryl breathes, her nails digging slightly into toni’s biceps as dream toni smiles down at her and leans down to kiss the tip of her nose._

_“you can always thank me with a kiss?” toni says with a playful pout, one that has cheryl rolling her eyes before she’s pushing herself up slowly, lips inches away from toni’s…_

cheryl pulls herself away from toni’s grip with a wild gasp, staring at the girl before her as toni looks down at her in shock, and they spring apart, the both of them staring at each other and breathing heavily as cheryl’s bottom lip trembles.

“your f-fear…your biggest fear is losing m-me?” cheryl whispers, staring at toni with utter awe and worship as the pink haired girl blinks back tears and leans in closer to her.

“i’m your hope?” she asks in a small voice, this smile lighting up her face as cheryl throws all caution to the wind and leans in just as close.

“i…i can finally do this…now that i can touch you…” toni whispers, and before cheryl can even think-

toni reaches up, a hand cradling her cheek, her thumb brushing over the apple of cheryl’s cheekbone and causing the girl’s heart to race wildly as toni exhales shakily and finally, _finally_ closes the gap between them.

it’s indescribable.

the energy that hits the both of them, the way toni trembles against her, tears falling down both their cheeks, this white light emanating from toni as dark clouds surround cheryl, and god, the electricity, the _sparks_ that explode as soon as cheryl’s lips part to take toni’s bottom one between them, kissing her fiercely, passionately, desperate to convey just how she feels-

she feels that rush of cold wind hit her over and over again, but she clings to toni tightly, not even caring enough to pull away to feel the way the temperature changes from cold to hot to lukewarm to cold again before it finally settles on hot once more, the dark clouds becoming harsher with each change-

toni pulls away from her with a whimper before she’s kissing her once more, both hands gripping cheryl’s face now as the girl fists toni’s hoodie between her fingers to pull her impossibly closer.

this is amazing, beyond compare, electrifying and all consuming and cheryl’s _obsessed._

it’s when the need for air becomes too great that they finally pull away from each other, the white light and the dark clouds dissipating, but the both of them as close as possible as they breathe each other in.

and it’s then that cheryl hears the rush of water to her right, finds herself slightly turning to see none other than sweetwater river flowing beside her, she and toni perched on their rock as toni gasps in shock and takes in what’s beside them.

“did you teleport us here?” she breathes. cheryl chuckles despite herself and turns to face toni with a look of surprise.

“if i did, i didn’t mean to.” she whispers back. toni laughs softly and wraps a hand around the back of cheryl’s neck, their foreheads touching as cheryl exhales shakily and looks up at her with a breathless laugh.

“holy shit, right?” toni croaks out, laughing with her as cheryl nods against her in agreement.

that…it wasn’t normal. that kiss was beyond anything cheryl’s ever felt before in her entire life, it can’t have been normal…and she teleported them to sweet water river, maybe to multiple places before settling here, she felt that rush of cold wind more than once…

_it’s our powers connecting us…yin and yang…true soulmates…_

“i think you and i were made for each other, cheryl blossom.” toni whispers. cheryl licks her lips with a smile and leans in to kiss her once more, that energy exploding through her once more and causing toni to kiss her even more fiercely than before.

cheryl has no idea how long they’re kissing for, but it feels like hours before they’re finally able to pull away from each other, deciding to sit perched on their little rock with cheryl’s back pressed against toni’s chest, the pink haired girl’s legs on either side of cheryl and her arms wrapped around her chest.

they watch the soft waves of sweetwater river with smiles, basking in the melancholiness of it all, being right back at the place where it all began…

“we saved the town today…do you think the river still has more energy?” cheryl asks softly, leaning back against toni further as the girl herself rests her chin on top of cheryl’s shoulder. 

“i don’t know, but i’d be surprised if it did. the energy i felt when we absorbed it was _ a lot._” toni says with a chuckle. cheryl simply hums, finds herself smiling widely with her eyes fluttering closed when toni squeezes her affectionately and nuzzles her nose into the back of her hair. 

“mmm…do you think there’s others out there like us?” cheryl asks softly, staring out onto the river as toni is the one to laugh in her ear now, lips brushing against her ear before-

“there’s no one like us, cher.” she says simply.

and cheryl can’t help but smile and agree with her as toni holds her closer until they’re practically moulded together, her lips pressing multiple kisses to her temple, over her cheek, down to her jaw, affection she’s never felt before in her life while they watch the water move over the river. 

there really is no one else like them.


	6. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and so we reach the end of another lovely little fic! 
> 
> there are three people I have to thank! one is Britney, aka @mylittlefaith on twitter, who has been an absolute goddamn STAR. without her this fic would not exist, PERIODT. I knew nothing about cloak and dagger going into this and she filled me on all the things I needed to help this fic feel as authentic but also as original as possible, and I can't thank her enough for putting up with my consistent annoying "can you read this for a second?!" messages lmao!
> 
> the third person is Bree, aka @topazgotjuice on twitter, who has also put up with insistent messages from me asking for an opinion, but who has also done the most stunning job of hyping me up with this fic and making me want to write more. you are incredible and I love you!
> 
> lastly, I wanna thank Syd, aka @choniblopaz1 on twitter, for just being herself and being my amazing best fraaaaan, and always motivating me to continue writing. you're my partner in crime, girlie, and I love you lots.
> 
> anyway, here's the ending to the cloak and dagger fic! I have a lot more coming, a couple more one shots, some original, some sequels to some of my other fics (*ahem* AWTR and the collar fic *ahem*) as well as a mini multi-chapter fic like this one that I will hopefully be able to finish before riverdale returns in January, so stay tuned!!
> 
> until then, bye for now! xo

the summer ends.

the chaos begins to die down.

and cheryl blossom begins to prepare herself to return for her senior year at riverdale high. begins to prepare herself for the inevitable stares, and the anger…perhaps even possible attacks from the students of riverdale high who have no choice but to take their grief out on her now that both clifford and penelope blossom are currently rotting away in jail.

she’s already had people shout at her, already had people call her a killer and a murderer despite clifford being the one persecuted for his crimes. 

because yes, clifford was officially charged and sentenced to life in prison for the explosion on july fourth ten years ago, along with being charged for the distribution of illegal drugs and drug racketeering, but it was also revealed that penelope blossom was aware of clifford’s drug dealing over the years.

cheryl’s mother, however, was not aware that clifford had caused the explosion, and cheryl can still hear the way her mother had screamed at her father from across the court room as they both were handcuffed and dragged away, penelope screaming about how clifford had taken her son from her…had ruined her life and taken away the only child she loved…

that particular comment had hurt. 

however, cheryl had managed to get through it all relatively well.

and it’s all thanks to toni. 

toni has stayed by her side for every goddamn second of the process, has held her hand and kissed her hair and let her cry as much as she needed, and cheryl’s quite sure she never would’ve survived the rest of this summer without her.

the fact that she and toni haven’t yet lost the ability to touch has only made everything better. it makes toni able to hold her on the nights where they curl up on top of toni’s mattress on the balcony of the whyte wyrm. cheryl still isn’t able to go home, her heart unable to take entering that home or stepping a foot inside it, and josie’s mother, mayor mccoy, has actually opened her home to cheryl and told her she can stay for as long as she wants, which she has…well, at least until she’s positive that josie and her mother are asleep before she teleports to toni and spends her nights wrapped in her arms. 

it’s where she is now, at one thirty in the morning with her eyes drooping heavier and heavier with fatigue, the sound of toni’s soft breathing and her chest expanding against the side of her head as she curls up further into toni’s side with a tired sigh. 

“mmm…you okay?” toni barely slurs out, her arms tightening slightly around cheryl for just a moment as the redhead nods and nuzzles into her further. 

“yeah…just worried about what those lawyers want with me in the afternoon…” cheryl murmurs, gripping the fabric of toni’s hoodie between her fingers with her teeth gnawing anxiously at her bottom lip. toni hums once more before her lips rest against cheryl’s hairline, puckering into a gentle kiss before she speaks. 

“whatever it is, we’ll handle it.” she mumbles. cheryl smiles despite herself, ducks her head to press a kiss to toni’s collarbone before she sighs heavily. the judge had told her that her father’s estate and money would likely go to her now that both her parents were imprisoned, but cheryl doesn’t want her father’s money or anything to do with the company, or even the blossom name. she lost everything thanks to him, including her twin brother, and his money, no matter how much of it he had and how much of it she was about to inherit, was going to change that. 

if there was something she could do with that money, perhaps donate it to riverdale high despite that school giving her nothing but hell, or maybe she can donate it to pop’s-

cheryl gasps, the idea hitting her out of nowhere and causing her to sit up wildly, and toni jerks at the sudden movement and looks up at her in surprise, blinking the sleep from her eyes as she does. 

“what’s wrong?” she croaks out, sitting up slowly and gripping cheryl’s hand, gasping when the dark clouds surround her pale skin while toni’s shines brightly. 

“n-nothing-.”

“well, that’s a lie, that only happens when our emotions are high, or did you forget what happened last time?” toni says with a chuckle and a smirk, eyebrow raised as cheryl’s cheeks immediately flush with embarrassment. 

she and toni’s relationship has grown exponentially over the last few weeks, and about a week or so ago, when veronica had extended a free room out to cheryl for a couple of nights at the pembrooke, cheryl had snuck toni in to stay with her and they’d decided to take their relationship…well, _further._

cheryl feels like her body still hasn’t quite fully gotten over the sparks that had erupted through every nerve ending, and every time she thinks about it, the shivers that roll down her spine take hours to stop, but despite how fucking _perfect_ her first time with toni had been, something had…_happened_ when she’d been on the cusp of her third climax. 

she teleported.

one second, her fingers had been twisted into toni’s faded pink hair, her hips bucking and her entire body on goddamn fire with each lap of toni’s tongue against her and the soft feeling of silk sheets beneath her before suddenly, she was hearing the rushing sounds of water and feeling the hard gravel of rock scratching her bare back. 

with her body throbbing with need and shaking, cheryl had opened her eyes to find herself at sweet water river, stark naked and trembling in shock.

she teleported back to toni immediately to find the girl in tears of panic, a whimper of relief escaping her before she had embraced cheryl tightly, and the second cheryl had told her what happened:

toni had burst into laughter. 

so yes, that had been their first indication that their powers were definitely tied to their emotions, and cheryl hates it, because it’s giving away right now that her emotions are haywire.

and toni can already read her like a fucking book, now her goddamn powers are giving her away too-

“come on, talk to me, baby…what’s wrong?” toni says softly, reaching up to brush a lock of hair behind her ear. cheryl lets out a shaky breath and simply smiles, because the idea she has…

she wants it to be a surprise. a surprise for the girl she cares about…for her soulmate. 

“nothing, toni. i promise. just…hold me?” cheryl whispers, smiling when toni looks into her eyes for a few moments before she returns her smile and gives her a quick kiss on the lips, arms wrapping around her shoulders and pulling her back down onto the mattress with a tired sigh.

“you don’t have to ask, babe. always…” 

—

toni’s summer ends much like it began: stressed, trying her best to survive and doing everything she can to keep the serpents afloat.

there’s only one major difference, really.

she now has a girlfriend by her side, which is both a blessing and a curse.

because cheryl is there to listen to her, to kiss her forehead or her cheeks or her lips and hold her and brush away her tears, is there to make her feel better when she feels like everything’s falling apart and is there to offer solutions to what feels like her endless problems.

but cheryl also spends her summer in court, watching her parents get carried away to prison, and even though cheryl’s friends are more than looking after her, keeping her clothed and fed while she waits to inherit the money from her father’s company, toni still worries. 

because cheryl is her soulmate, and every second she’s not by her side is a second toni spends with a racing heart worried about her. 

she knows it’s crazy, because clifford is gone, and so are the ghoulies now that a majority of them are in jail along with their leader, which means the southside is officially drug free, but toni still worries about _everything._ because the serpents are still stuck at the whyte wyrm with no money for food, and she worries every day that with the recent revelations of the ghoulies causing the influx of drugs, mayor mccoy is seconds away from razing the southside to the ground. 

toni runs her fingers through her hair with a shaky sigh, but looks up regardless with a smile as the loud sound of a bell ringing echoes out and students begin piling out of riverdale high. 

she hasn’t seen cheryl since yesterday afternoon because the redhead had to meet with more lawyers and then had a sleepover at josie’s along with her friends before the first day of school, and her entire body is _vibrating_ with an ache she can’t explain at the prolonged absence, desperate to reunite with her other half-

her body begins trembling the second she sees that flash of bright red hair, and she’s pulling her hoodie off her head with a grin as cheryl practically _jumps_ down the stairs and runs straight for her.

“toni!” the pink haired girl laughs and opens her arms, grinning from ear to ear as cheryl _slams_ into her and hugs her tightly, arms wrapped around her neck. toni grips her waist and lifts her off the ground with a playful growl, nose buried into her hair as cheryl giggles into her ear and pulls back to look at her. 

“hi.” she whispers breathlessly, smiling as toni tucks her hair behind her ears and cups her face with gentle hands.

“hi.” she whispers back, leaning in without a care in the world for the other students around the parking lot as she kisses her girlfriend with all the passion she can muster. cheryl giggles against her giddily once more before she pulls away with her forehead resting against toni’s.

“how was your day?” she asks softly, only for toni to shrug as she grips cheryl’s waist and pulls her closer to press a kiss to the corner of her mouth. 

“boring without you…how was your first day back? did anyone give you shit?” toni asks, clenching her jaw and looking around the parking lot at the people staring as cheryl sighs and simply shrugs as well.

“of course, but it doesn’t bother me. i stayed with my friends and they defended me.”

“speaking of those friends…” toni blinks in surprise at the sound of a deep voice and looks over cheryl’s shoulder before they pull away from each other to reveal a group of people watching them with smirks and smiles on their faces, watching their happy little reunion. there’s a dark skinned girl with a headband consisting of cat ears on her head, a shorter girl with dark hair and a smirk, a young man beside her who looks like he honestly could be cheryl’s relative with his red hair, and another young man beside him who’s green eyes are alight with happiness as cheryl clears her throat with a nervous chuckle and pulls away from toni slowly. 

“oh! uh, toni, these are…these are my friends. josie mccoy, veronica lodge, archie andrews and kevin keller.” cheryl says with a smile, pointing to each person she introduces as josie mccoy steps forward with a smirk and a laugh.

“nice to meet the girl who’s putting a smile on our girl’s face after the summer she’s had.” she says simply, extending her hand for toni to take, which she does.

“toni topaz, nice to meet you too.” with a sly smile. cheryl rolls her eyes, and toni gives the others a simple wave before cheryl is clutching her forearm and looking at her friends.

“as much as we’d love to stay, we have somewhere to be, sorry guys!”

“we do?” toni says in confusion, looking at her and wincing when cheryl glares at her before she’s taking toni’s hand and practically dragging her to her car in the parking lot.

“we sure do! bye, see you tomorrow!” cheryl calls out to her friends sweetly, who all chuckle and shake their heads in amusement as toni looks at cheryl in surprise.

“come on, toni…let’s go to pop’s. i have a surprise for you.” cheryl says simply, opening the passenger side door with a flourish, and toni doesn’t even question what the surprise is.

because wherever cheryl goes, she’ll surely follow.

the drive to pop’s isn’t long at all, toni resting back in the passenger seat with her hand clasped in cheryl’s over the gearshift, squeezing her fingers every few seconds with a smile. as soon as they enter, pop tate himself gives them a big smile before he winks at them and asks them what they want.

“i’m not sure, what are you feeling, toni?” cheryl asks, looking at her girlfriend and grinning widely when toni slides her hand into cheryl’s and interlaces their fingers gently. 

“i’m definitely feeling like waffles. how about you, babe?” she asks with an equally cheeky grin that cheryl can’t help but laugh at as she grips toni’s hand further as her mind calls back to the night after clifford had been arrested, when cheryl had teleported to toni from the mccoy’s house in tears and toni had held her close as they lay on that little mattress of hers on the balcony of the whyte wyrm…

_“do you prefer pancakes or waffles?” toni asks her, lips resting against the crown of her head as cheryl chuckles and sniffs back more tears before she looks up at her in confusion and pushes herself up off toni’s chest to look down at her._

_“like the dessert, or…?”_

_“mmm, more like…do you prefer pancakes…” toni murmurs, taking cheryl’s hand suddenly and gripping it with her fingers wrapped around the side of cheryl’s palm. _

_“or waffles?” toni whispers, moving their conjoined hands until she’s interlacing their fingers, tanned skin against alabaster before she’s giving them a gentle squeeze and looking up into cheryl’s eyes._

_cheryl doesn’t even hesitate._

_“waffles…definitely waffles. duh!”_

“two plates of waffles and one strawberry milkshake for me, as well as a chocolate one for toni. thanks, pop.” 

pop tate takes their order with a chuckle and a shake of his head, and with their fingers still intertwined, cheryl leads toni to one of the booths in the far corner of the diner, and as soon as they slide in, cheryl’s grin is almost heart stopping.

“okay, what’s going on? you’ve gotta tell me what’s got you smiling so widely!” toni says with a soft laugh, watching as cheryl bites down on her lower lip to hide what toni guesses is her excitement.

over what, however, she has no idea.

“toni…” cheryl suddenly reaches over the table for her hands, and toni places them on the table for her to grip them, fingers interlaced, tanned skin against pale and causing both girls to smile. cheryl chews on her bottom lip once more before she’s letting out a shaky breath and lifting toni’s hands to her lips to press a kiss to her knuckles. 

“i spoke with the lawyers yesterday about my father’s money and finally settled everything with his fortune.” cheryl breathes, looking up at toni as the girl smiles and gives cheryl’s hands a squeeze.

“what did they say?” cheryl swallows thickly before she looks up into toni’s eyes with nothing but happiness shining in them. 

“i’m…the new owner of blossom maple farms and over twenty million dollars of inheritance.” 

toni chokes on her own saliva, her eyes almost bugging out of her head and her hands squeezing cheryl’s so tightly, her pale fingers begin turning red.

“wh-what?” she somehow manages to get out, watching in shock as cheryl giggles before she hums softly and nods. 

“mmm, not only that, but i’m planning on selling the company and the blossom estate as well. i want nothing to do with any of it, and my father has already left me some more than livid voicemails telling me not to do it, but everything is officially in my name so he has no say over what i do with it.” 

toni blinks a few times in surprise before she lets out a deep breath and a disbelieving chuckle.

“holy shit, cheryl…” toni croaks out, shaking her head as cheryl smiles and rests her forearms on the table to lean over it. she loosens her grip on toni’s left hand and reaches up to cup her cheek, and toni smiles weakly and pushes herself up out of her seat to meet her halfway, their lips connecting in a gentle kiss while toni’s mind continues to reel over the fact that essentially…

essentially, her girlfriend is a millionaire now. 

toni finds herself smiling against cheryl’s lips, humming softly against them before she pulls away and looks into cheryl’s eyes with a sigh of relief.

a sigh of relief that cheryl will be okay now…that she has money to lean on, enough money to buy twenty houses if she wanted to, she’ll be okay…

“a fresh start…it’ll be great for you, cher.” toni whispers, reaching up to tuck a lock of hair behind cheryl’s ear as the redhead nods and leans into her touch, cheek flush against her tanned palm. 

“mmm, a fresh start for _us._” she whispers gently. toni finds herself cocking an eyebrow in confusion.

“us?” she asks simply with a chuckle, and cheryl chews on her bottom lip before she squeezes toni’s hand and presses another gentle kiss to the corner of her mouth. 

“us, and…the serpents. if you’ll allow me to help.” cheryl says with this tone in her voice that has toni’s heart aching with affection before the depth of cheryl’s words really hit her. 

help the serpents? what is she talking about?

“cher-.”

“toni, the serpents need help, and i have a fortune now. i’m more than happy to use my money to help refurbish the whyte wyrm, buy the trailer park back and even buy a few trailers for everyone to live in.” cheryl says simply, as if she’s solving a maths equation and not talking about spending millions of dollars of inheritance she only just earned yesterday.

toni stares at her in complete shock, eyes wide and mouth dropped open before she’s immediately shaking her head in protest.

because the idea is absolutely and utterly-

“no…no, cheryl, that’s completely insane!” toni says immediately, scoffing in disbelief as cheryl shrugs and interlaces their fingers before she begins playing with toni’s nonchalantly. 

“why? i spent all last night at veronica’s looking everything up, it won’t even make a _dent_ in my fortune, toni! let me help you…please?” cheryl pleads urgently, smiling softly at toni, but the pink haired girl immediately shakes her head. 

she knows why cheryl’s so adamant on this, and toni wants her to know that it’s not necessary at all, that she doesn’t need to do this to make up for her father’s sins…

“cheryl, i know why you want to do this! it’s because you feel guilty over what your father’s done, but baby, you’re _not_ responsible for his actions-.” 

“toni, stop…” cheryl whispers, gripping her hands tightly with a hard swallow and a clench of her jaw, and toni smiles and brings her hands to her lips to kiss them tenderly. 

“i just…use that money for yourself, cher. the serpents will be fine.” toni reassures her, smiling softly, but cheryl simply watches her for a few moments before she shakes her head with a whine.

“toni, it’s _millions and millions_ of dollars! i don’t need that much money, and i want to use it for something _good_, considering how that money was obtained in the first place…let me do this, please?” cheryl whispers, watching as toni hesitates, eyes wide and breaths escaping her heavily before she licks her lips and lets out a shaky sigh.

“cheryl-.”

“babe, you should know that even if you say no, mayor mccoy is planning on hosting a charity event for the southside later on this month at the request of most of the citizens of the northside. they feel terrible for all the harm the northside has done to the south since that day and they want to contribute to helping those that are left. i can just donate the money then…but i’d rather work with you than against you.” cheryl says with a sad smile, one that quickly fades as toni’s jaw clenches and this anger begins to slowly fill her dark eyes. 

“some charity event can’t make up for the years of abuse we suffered at the hands of those on the northside, cheryl. southsiders were killed by northsiders, driven out of town, families torn apart-.” toni begins with slightly clenched teeth in anger…anger that immediately vanishes when cheryl squeezes her hand and nods in understanding. 

“i know…gives me all the more reason to do this. to help rebuild the southside, to help rebuild what the northsiders and my father tore apart.” 

“that’s…it’s not your responsbility, cheryl, you did nothing wrong.” toni says immediately, but cheryl shakes her head regardless.

“even if i did nothing wrong, i have a responsibility to do something _right_ with the fortune bestowed upon me. to help those in need of help and to repair a broken town that was only ripped apart by one man’s own selfishness.” 

she’s not real, toni’s determined…this girl before, this girl who has so easily stolen her heart, cannot possibly be real…

“if only the rest of the world’s millionaires thought like you did, cheryl blossom…” toni whispers, playing with cheryl’s fingers gently with a scoff of disbelief as cheryl smiles and looks at her with nothing but genuine care and affection. 

“mmm…will you accept my help?” cheryl asks, prompting toni to smile as she runs the tips of her fingers up and down cheryl’s pale forearm and wrist. 

“only if you promise to invest the rest of that money into something for _yourself._ clifford ruined your life too, cheryl…he took your twin brother from you and made you believe it was your fault for over a decade. maybe money can’t fix the pain he caused but…i think using that money to do something amazing for yourself is the best kind of way to get back at him for it.” toni says firmly. cheryl chews on her bottom lip before she simply nods once.

“i’ll…consider it-.”

“nope! promise me, cheryl.” toni reaffirms, squeezing her wrist gently, and cheryl rolls her eyes, but smiles all the same as she suddenly jumps up and presses a kiss to toni’s brow.

“okay, fine. i promise.” she whispers against her skin. toni hums in content with a smile, her heart racing at the idea of them doing this as she pulls back and gently presses her lips to cheryl’s in a kiss.

“mmm, good…cheryl, i don’t know how to thank you-.”

“you don’t have to. just kiss me.” cheryl murmurs against her lips, kissing her a little more firmly once again as toni smiles into the kiss with an ecstatic heart and tears in her eyes that she’s found someone so amazing, so _perfect-_

“sorry to break up your love-fest, ladies, but dinner is served!” pop tate’s voice rings out, causing the two of them to break apart and look up at the man with a smile before they exchange glances allow pop tate to rest their dishes on the table.

“thank you, pop. by the way…how do you feel about hosting a fundraiser for the southside here at your diner?” 

-

three months go by and at the end of it all, cheryl is right.

buying the whyte wyrm and the trailer park barely makes a dent in her money, especially after selling the company her father fronted and the blossom estate, which only increased her fortune. the money raised at the charity event held at pop’s diner ends up paying for four trailers, enough to house the serpents currently staying in the whyte wyrm as well as a handful of other southsiders. 

of course, that charity event had held a lot of tension and apprehension from both southsiders and northsiders alike, but it had actually ended up being quite a joyous event. differences had been settled, and toni had found herself in tears by the end of it all. 

cheryl was still staying with the mccoys, but was now spending her nights with toni in her new trailer, teleporting every night to her because spending even a little bit of time apart is hard for them to do, especially after everything they’ve been through. the night after the charity event, toni had cried in cheryl’s arms for a long time. she was just so…happy isn’t even the right word to describe it. it’s beyond happiness, it’s beyond anything she’s felt in over ten years. 

and it only gets better. 

because cheryl somehow manages to convince mayor mccoy to begin a program that helps all of those on the southside to get jobs, and also to help those who were suffering from drug addictions to overcome it, to move forward with their lives. because pop tate hires toni for a job as a waitress without hesitation…because toni manages to bring the serpents back on track, manages to help them get jobs to feed their own mouths, manages to bring them back together, and promises to mayor mccoy that the serpents will not be what they used to be…drug dealers and thieves and fiends…that the serpents will now be about one thing and one thing only.

protecting the town of riverdale, from anyone or anything that may attempt to cause it harm. from anyone that may attempt to build their own drug empire within the borders of the small town they love. that the southside serpents will now work to keep the town safe from drugs or any kind of criminal activity. 

she’s done it.

somehow…magically…toni’s brought the serpents back, has saved them, has helped them, has given them refuge with the help of none other than mayor mccoy and cheryl goddamn blossom.

the thought brings her to tears once more, has her whining as she buries her face further into cheryl’s neck until her lips are pressing a kiss to cheryl’s pulse point, and the redhead chuckles before she squeezes toni in her arms and kisses her brow tenderly.

“what’s wrong? i thought you’d be asleep by now, tonight was exhausting.” cheryl murmurs. 

it was thanksgiving, and toni had hosted a thanksgiving dinner at the whyte wyrm, had been able to afford a turkey and roast potatoes and gravy and god, so much food along with the help of the other serpents, and when byrdie had come up to her and had told her that her hopes had finally come true, toni had burst into tears, unable to contain herself because she had seen that vision in byrdie’s mind, and it was coming true, all of it was coming true…

“cheryl…” toni whispers, blinking back tears as she pushes herself up to look down into cheryl’s eyes before she’s caressing her cheek and brushing her thumb over her cheekbone tenderly, this rush of emotions hitting her so suddenly that none of this would be possible without the girl beneath her right now…

the words escape her before she can really think of the consequences of them, but she finds she doesn’t regret them as soon as she says them.

“i love you.” toni breathes, nails scratching lightly at the back of cheryl’s neck in her nervousness as the red haired girl looks up at her in shock, eyes wide, taking in the words toni has just told her…

“i love you, too.” cheryl whispers back without hesitation.

and toni smiles and leans in, lips capturing cheryl’s bottom one between her own in the lightest of kisses they’ve ever shared together…one filled with so much passion and love and acceptance…one that has toni’s whole body glowing, this white light shining from her as these clouds of dark smoke begin to shroud cheryl, their emotions heightened, their powers elevated in this charged moment…

the powers that brought them back together after ten years apart…

toni pulls away, her glowing body beginning to ebb as the dark clouds around cheryl begin to fade as well, and she looks down at cheryl with a wide smile as the redhead giggles and tucks a lock of freshly dyed pink hair behind her ear. 

“can you believe this all began ten years ago? or that we ever managed to stay apart for that amount of time? it seems…so insane to me, the idea of us not being together for that amount of time.” cheryl whispers, hands brushing up and down toni’s back gently as toni hums softly and leans down to brush her nose against cheryl’s affectionately. 

“i know. i can’t imagine you not being a part of my life…god, we stayed so long not being able to touch each other, too, how did we even manage that?!” toni exclaims, shaking her head in disbelief as cheryl licks her lips and pulls her down just a little closer to brush their lips together. 

“absolutely crazy.” cheryl murmurs, kissing her only lightly as toni moves her hands underneath cheryl’s long sleeved pajama shirt, scratching at her stomach playfully. 

“we still know nothing about these powers…should we like, get tested or something? find out what really happened?” toni asks, pulling back only slightly to look up at cheryl questioningly. cheryl hesitates, teeth gnawing on her bottom lip in thought before she presses a kiss between toni’s eyes. 

“we can if you want to?” cheryl murmurs. now it’s toni’s turn to hesitate, but it’s not for long before she finds herself shaking her head.

“maybe…if our powers ever cause us any issues, but for now, i’d rather live exactly how we are right now…peaceful…and happy.” toni whispers. cheryl smiles, her eyes fluttering tiredly as toni kisses her once more a little more firmly this time. 

it’s quiet for a few moments, the both of them just basking in each other’s presence, in their first declarations of love, hands roaming over each other’s skin and bodies, lips pressing together in gentle kisses before toni pulls away with a sigh and a grumble.

“i don’t wanna work tomorrow.” cheryl laughs at her words and simply shrugs as she wraps her arms around toni tightly. 

“you don’t have to go if you don’t want to, i have enough money for the both of us.” she teases, laughing when toni gasps before she playfully smacks cheryl’s arm in reprimand.

“i am not a gold digger!” she exclaims, prompting more laughter from cheryl before she grips toni’s face in her hands and lifts her gaze to kiss her full lips softly.

“no, you’re not…you’re incredible…and amazing…and so, so, so beautiful…” cheryl whispers between quick and loving pecks to her cheeks, eyes and nose before eventually kissing her lips once more. 

“mmm, you’re slowly entering my good books again…” toni grumbles, giggling when cheryl’s fingers brush up and down her ticklish sides before she’s looking right into toni’s eyes with the softest look toni’s ever seen from her.

“so beautiful…i love you, toni. and i am so, so thankful to have you in my life.” 

“i love you, cheryl. and i am so thankful for you…for having you in my life, too. and no matter what happens next, i always will be. you’re…my soulmate.” toni whispers, smiling as cheryl’s hands roam down to cover her backside with a cheeky, but also genuine grin.

“as you are mine, toni topaz. as you are mine.” 

and with their lips smacking together gently in kisses held only for the person they love, cheryl blossom and toni topaz lay covered up in blankets, bodies pressed together, a luxury they weren’t given for far too long, with their bodies vibrating with the energy of their powers…and a faint white glow and dark clouds surrounding them.


End file.
